County Division 3 South
Bashley (Rydal) III 198-9
New Milton II 48

BASHLEY skittled out local rivals New Milton for 48 which included six ducks in the innings to take victory by 150 runs at Bashley Road.

After winning the toss and electing bat, Bashley set out to impose themselves in the derby. However, they slumped to 40-3 with openers James Underwood (22) and Tom O’Sullivan (8) removed by the economical Dave Crossley who went for 3-16 from nine overs. Number four Arno Hattingh steadied the ship as he top scored with 44 in the testing batting conditions. Bashley captain Sam Scott reached 11 before a spectacular catch from Billy Tomkins off Kristian Locke’s bowling left the game in New Milton’s favour at 96-5 through 24 overs. But the hosts battled back as youngster Saif Achakzai and number nine Sam Laurent scored 29 and 39 respectively to give New Milton a target of 199 to win. Swing bowler Matt Baker starred for the visitors with the ball as he grabbed 4-24 off his seven overs.

Opening bowler Laurent took command of Bashley’s bowling performance and continued his excellent outing as he toppled Ben Griffiths’ middle stump with the first ball of the innings. Top order batsmen Connor Tompkins, Steve Tilbury and stand-in captain Ellis Day also succumbed to Laurent’s swing bowling as he finished his spell with 4-30 off his opening six overs. It was down hill from there for the visitors as Chris Vaughan entered the attack. Vaughan took a triple wicket maiden in his first over and ended his three overs with figures of 5-2. Sam Scott took Andrew Deakins’ wicket to end the innings which saw extras total top score with 22.