CRICKET: BERKSWELL were unfortunate to not come away from their home fixture against Wolverhampton with maximum points after the visitor’s last two batsmen denied the home side victory.
In a match reduced to 46 overs due to heavy rain the night before, Berkswell batted first and reached 234/8 with major contributions coming from Chris Whittock (74), Tom Lewis (54) and Derbyshire’s Tom Milnes (43).
In reply, the visitors never came to terms with the early pace of Milnes and Aussie Ryan Sidebottom.
Berkwell’s opening attack had reduced Wolverhampton to 23/3 by the 12th over.
A period of eight overs from Alex Hepburn and David Brignull for a total of only 19 runs kept the pressure on the visitors.
But then a partnership of runs 98 runs between Aneesh Kapil and Zen Malik eased the situation for Wolverhampton.
However, the introduction of slow left arm spinner Mohammed Ahmed into the attack paid dividends as he removed Kapil (50), Malik (51), and Hammond (0) in quick succession to leave the visitors on 127/6 in the 36th over.
The re-introduction of Sidebottom – who ended with figures of four wickets for 35 runs – had an immediate effect as he took the wickets of Ramanjot Jaswal (13) and Will Nield (20).
This was closely followed by Ahmed claiming the wicket of Chris Russell (0) to leave Wolverhampton on 163/9 with only 2 overs left.
Despite the last two batsmen playing and missing with regularity, the Berkswell bowlers were unable to take the last wicket.
Wolverhampton clung on to claim the draw that meant Berkswell dropped to second place in the table – three points behind new leaders Shrewsbury.
Berkswell travel to Kidderminster this Saturday for a midday start.
Despite struggling for the first few weeks of the season, Kidderminster recorded their first win on Saturday.
Picture: Manjit Narotra.
