Bashley welcomed second in the table Mudeford to Bashley Road on Saturday.
In overcast conditions Bashley won the toss and elected to bat first. Runs were hard to come by against a very accurate Mudeford bowling attack and the early loss of Lawrence Drake 1, Tom O’Sullivan 12 and Patrick Holly 7 reduced Bashley to 21 for 3. Graham Pardey and Patrick Lewis started to rebuild the innings but progress was slow and when Lewis was caught behind for 28 in the 30th over Bashley were only 77 for 4.With Pardey looking very solid at one end Bashley attempted to increase the run rate. Jack Ransom 17, Michael O’Sullivan 14 and Sam Scott 26 not out provided some late order impetus in an attempt to set a challenging total. Pardey was eventually out for a well made and valuable 50 but the final Bashley total of 162 for 9 looked below par.
After tea Bashley knew they need to make early inroads into the Mudeford batting. Accurate opening spells for David Morris and Jason Eede kept the runs in check and Eede had Patel caught behind in the 10th over to leave Mudeford 20 for 1.Unfortunately Bashley failed to hang on to another couple of chances and this was to prove crucial to the outcome. Gardner and Mudeford star batsman Dan Malins took advantage of these let offs and built a vital 96 run partnership before Gardner was caught off Holly for 32.Malins however continued to score freely and had reached 88 before he was caught and bowled by Holly (2 for 40).Ransom (1 for 40) had Walker caught for 11 but Mudeford reached their target in the penultimate over to win by 6 wickets.
A good effort by Bashley against strong and confident opponents but they will rue their missed chances in this game.