With arguably their strongest side of the season so far, Castlethorpe were able to make the most of good batting conditions to set a total that Dunchurch weren't able to chase down.
Despite the loss of an unfortunate early wicket as the returning Martin Jones was run out backing up, the home side managed to work their way up to a solid total of 192 for nine thanks to solid contributions all the way down the batting order: after Syed Naqvi (39) and Garry Singh Maan (33) batted sensibly to lay a strong platform, the lower order then chipped in with a flurry of cameos, most notably Stuart Walding (22), Matt Lewis (22) and Jamie Crawford (15 not out).
After an innovative tea from Aaron Day (it included fish finger sandwiches, and everyone else should take note), the Castlethorpe bowlers were properly fuelled to defend their total. Incisive opening spells from Syed Naqvi (three for 10) and Sam Brightwell (one for 17) left the Dunchurch batting order reeling at 29 for five. The rest of the Castlethorpe bowlers also contributed well, with tidy spells from Martin Jones (10-4-22-2), Mark Currell (6-1-23-0), Atif Mushtaq (8-0-22-1) and Garry Singh Maan (5-2-11-1) making sure that the twenty points were never in doubt.
Those twenty points lifted us back out of the Division One drop zone, and there's no reason why we can't push on for promotion despite our rocky start to the season. We nearly did it last year after all.
Match report by Martin Jones
Despite the loss of an unfortunate early wicket as the returning Martin Jones was run out backing up, the home side managed to work their way up to a solid total of 192 for nine thanks to solid contributions all the way down the batting order: after Syed Naqvi (39) and Garry Singh Maan (33) batted sensibly to lay a strong platform, the lower order then chipped in with a flurry of cameos, most notably Stuart Walding (22), Matt Lewis (22) and Jamie Crawford (15 not out).
After an innovative tea from Aaron Day (it included fish finger sandwiches, and everyone else should take note), the Castlethorpe bowlers were properly fuelled to defend their total. Incisive opening spells from Syed Naqvi (three for 10) and Sam Brightwell (one for 17) left the Dunchurch batting order reeling at 29 for five. The rest of the Castlethorpe bowlers also contributed well, with tidy spells from Martin Jones (10-4-22-2), Mark Currell (6-1-23-0), Atif Mushtaq (8-0-22-1) and Garry Singh Maan (5-2-11-1) making sure that the twenty points were never in doubt.
Those twenty points lifted us back out of the Division One drop zone, and there's no reason why we can't push on for promotion despite our rocky start to the season. We nearly did it last year after all.
Match report by Martin Jones