Wellington CC are up to second in the West of England Premier League’s Somerset Division after an away win over bottom side North Perrott on Saturday, writes David Derrick.
But the game was a lot closer than anyone had expected with only 18 runs separating the sides at the end.
Perrott, with only one league win all season, but having won the Baker Cup’s Shield strand earlier this month, won the toss and bowled first.
This time it was the turn of Arron Campbell and Luke Desave to open up for the Red and Blacks and post a 76-run first wicket stand to build a decent platform for the later batters.
Desave made a cracking 41 in 38 balls with seven fours before he was caught by Perrott skipper Sam Rowswell from the left arm spin of Krishnan Subramanian.
Campbell was anchoring the innings well for Wellington and had made it to 53 not out when Subramanian pierced a hole in their middle order by taking two in two balls.
At 112-4, Wellington needed to pause for a minute and assess their strategy for the rest of their innings – Subramanian took a decent 3-34 in ten impressive overs.
Expansion of the Wellington batting effort came from former skipper Campbell who crafted a wonderful 93 (141 balls with 15 fours) as he and James Hibbert, with a cool half-century of his own, advanced the score to 200 when Campbell was trapped leg before.
Jacob Hurry with 12 and Oz O’Livey with 11 got Wellington past 225 and to full batting points as Perrott came back well to see the visitors ended on 240-9 in 50 overs. Rowswell with three late wickets for his team did a good job in his second spell for Perrott.
George Retter with 2-40 completed the wicket taking for the home side who would need 241 to win.
After a fruitless burst of pace from both ends had seen Retter and Charlie Male added 51 for Perrott’s first wicket, it was spin all the way for Welllington.
In the end, it did the job as Lakshan Edirisinghe lead the way with an outstanding analysis of 4-28 in ten overs saw off Perrott’s middle order.
Ronnie Frost with 28, their Sri Lankan import Nipun Lamahewage with 24 and keeper Alex Payne, who was left high and dry on 25 not out, did their best to battle on for Perrott.
But with Stian Smith, Campbell and Nathan Yarde each taking a wicket combined with three run outs to end matters as each of Edirisinghe, O’Livey and Smith had a hand in one each, the home side lost narrowly to take eight points to Wellington’s maximum of 20.
Wellington, who host Yeovil at the Lloyd and Whyte Cricket Ground on Saturday from noon, are now 24 points behind Ilminster. To see the table, CLICK HERE.
They have to win all five remaining games and hope the leaders slip.
Saturday also sees the club’s annual Ladies’ Day from 1pm (£5 per head0 and there is live music from 8pm featuring the duo 19Eighties – details of this event can be found on the club’s social media feeds.
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