IN a high-scoring game on a superb wicket, visitors Leamington always had the upper hand at Kidderminster, and had the better of the draw.

Having won the toss, Kidderminster skipper Sean Lloyd invited Leamington to bat and they took full advantage of the conditions.

Medium pacers Ted Baylis, Richard Bradford and Richard Wilkinson were all tried, and although they did not concede too many runs, never looked likely to take a wicket apart from Bradford (1-27).

Overseas player Mandeep Singh's spin did get him two wickets, but at a cost of 107 off 21 overs. The other spinner Mark Mansell took 4-68 from 17.

The Leamington batting was pretty solid and they had 50 on the board before the loss of the first wicket. Then came a partnership of 126 between Tim Briscoe (74) and David Hawkes (103). In the chase for more runs they lost five wickets for 32 runs as they closed on 252-8.

In reply, openers Mark Mansell (17) and Steve Davies (11) were out with only 38 runs showing.

The partnership of Gurdeep Kandola and Singh did give them some hope, but although their batting produced 157 runs until Singh was out for 54, it was all too slow.

Kandola appears to relish building an innings, but he does tend to disregard the clock, and was left unbeaten on 99 as Kidderminster closed on 193-3.

It was a pity that Baylis did not steal a single in the final over to give Kandola the chance of reaching his century.

Kidderminster took seven points to Leamington's 11.