COLWALL'S inconsistent league form continued at Malmesbury on Saturday as Indian Akstar and a suspect wicket condemned Colwall to a disappointing 40 run defeat.

MALMESBURY v COLWALL

On an under prepared and controversial wicket Colwall skipper Dave Sutton's choice to bowl first looked especially good after Colwall's comprehensive dismissal of the home side for only 104 inside 46 overs.

Jordan Kontarines gave Colwall an excellent start taking three wickets in his opening nine overs accompanied by Josh Hornyold's accurate spell to leave Malmesbury 34-3. Only Hurst (13), Tweedale (11) and Gould (19) added double figure scores in the top eight batsmen as Richard Williams and Dave Sutton's exceptional bowling tied down Malmesbury to just two an over and ripped through the rest of the top and middle order.

Sutton's outstanding figures of 3-13 off 14 overs complimented by Williams' 2-24 dominated the Malmesbury innings before Kontarines completed a comprehensive performance capturing the dangerous Gould to finish with 4-38 after Lee Hankins' catch at extra cover. Lester's vital late top score of 20 allowed the home side to pass the century run mark but once he had fallen to Steve Ferguson's second stumping off Sutton Colwall looked towards a maximum point victory. Stuart Bailey's late wicket concluded the rout to see Malmesbury 104 all out.

Colwall's very disappointing response ended with only 64 runs on the board as Indian paceman Akstar was responsible for much of the damage claiming 5-16.

His excellent opening spell matched with Mosdell's three wickets were the undoing of Colwall with only Richard Williams (17) and Jordan Kontarines (23) reaching beyond single figures.

Williams had earlier looked the stability needed to see the visitors through to the low total as he smashed 17 in nine balls. His mistimed shot to Hurst at mid-off however continued the rot to leave Colwall 22-4 before Steve Ferguson and Kontarines' gritty partnership still left Colwall with hope.

Their 23 seventh wicket pairing came to an end however after the unfortunate run out of Ferguson with the ball deflecting off spinner Shellard on to the non-striker's end wicket.

Akstar returned to complete the job with Kontarines wicket and the final wicket run out of Hornyold finished Colwall's dire batting display.

Village knockout

COLWALL will be looking for a far better performance on Sunday as they face Fillongley of Warwickshire in the last 16 of the National Village Knockout, play begins at 2pm at Stowe Lane after entertaining Bredon in the league the day before.