Methodists 109 all-out Bradley Stoke 3rds 110-5
Under cloudy skies, visiting Bradley Stoke chose to field first at Norton Hill. Opening bowlers Farooq Ahmad and Ben Rivers got plenty out of the wicket and, with the ball swinging around, had the Methodists’ batsmen in difficulties early on.
After ten overs, the top three had all departed – Rivers, in particular, causing all sorts of problems – and another change saw Graham Purnell and Rustam Qureshi maintain the pressure on the home side. Stuart Green was the mainstay of the Methodists’ batting, with 37, but good bowling from Kieran Wilson (2-18) and George Malin (3-14) put the visitors on top and the lower-order weren’t able to boost the total too much, before the re-introduction of Rivers (3-22) removed dogged ’keeper Dave Sackett to wrap things up for 109, after 35.5 overs.
After tea, Bradley Stoke avoided losing early wickets – Purnell and Jeganath Gandhi Rajamohan adding 31 runs in 13 overs, before the Methodists made a breakthrough, as Purnell was removed by Daniel Shearn. Stuart Green then trapped Jeganath lbw next over, but an important 43 run stand between Suresh Kumar Velayudham and Hashir Farouk got the visitors back in pole position.
Suresh was then run out for 22 and Green (2-20) claimed a second lbw, but Hashir got Bradley Stoke to within sight of their target, before falling to Graham Smith for 37. Captain, Matt Winward, finally hit the winning boundary to clinch victory by a comfortable margin of five wickets and bring an enjoyable game to a close.
Daniel Shearn