MALVERN won the toss and elected to bat first in this friendly on Sunday at Regency Road.

MALVERN CRICKET CLUB v MOD DERA

R Evans and A Cullen opened the batting but did not look comfortable and R Finch removed them both with only 18 on the board.

Wickets began to tumble and at 48-6 Malvern were in serious trouble. D Sharpe and A Croft came together at the crease and put on 72 for the seventh wicket. Sharpe was bowled by Dennis for 41 and Croft was bowled by Besgrove for 24, going for one big hit too many.

A late flurry by A Bywater (14no) and I Sumner (10no) and quite a few extras saw Malvern finish on 172-9 after their 40 overs.

After an exceptional tea provided by Penny, Marg and Viv DERA went out to bat. P Derbyshire and R Finch opened the batting. Bywater had Derbyshire caught behind by a spectacular one handed catch by Evans in the gully.

K Warriner came in but was soon out for a quick fire 13. This bought D Besgrove to the crease and after a shaky start Besgrove started to play some nice shots. Finch and Besgrove put on 62 for the third wicket and at 87-3 after 20 overs DERA looked favourites to win. Captain A Croft came on to bowl and straight away zoomed in on the off stump bowling his best spell of the season so far taking 5-15 off 9 overs. J Dovey came on to bowl and bowled W Dennis for 0, this left Besgrove at the wicket with number 11, P Finch. D Besgrove was trying to up the pace was bowled by Evans for a fine 81. This left DERA 137 all out after 36.2 overs, 35 runs short of their target.

The match was sponsored by Quintech.

Sunday July v Worcester U17.

Malvern Team: S Carter, R Francis, A Croft, R Evans, D Arnold, I Sumner, M Hooper, S Walker, P Young, D Sharpe, J Lee.