Luke Desave scored a century and was among the wickets in another scintillating win for Wellington CC on Saturday, writes David Derrick.
They recorded a 44-run victory over Temple Cloud in the Somerset Division of the West of England Premier League.
Playing in searing heat once again, Red and Blacks skipper Jacob Hurry had little hesitation in choosing to bat first.
From 16-2 with a wicket each to Temple opening pair Croker and Fox, the door was firmly slammed shut by Desave and Sam Whitefield who added 149 for the fourth wicket from a position of 80-3 of which Lakshan Edirisinghe had made a composed 30 (four fours, 42 balls).
Desave made his maiden league ton, and second all told for Wellington, as he crafted 103 in 134 balls with 16 fours to continue his transition as a pace bowler to an opening bat in both forms of the game.
Whitefield made his fourth WEPL Somerset Division half-century in a row with a pulsating 79 in 69 balls with 14 fours and a six as the Temple attack wilted.
The total of 229-3 became a final 272-9 for Wellington as a late punch to the score came about from James Hibbert (21 in 15 balls with three fours) and Hurry with 13 not out.
Croker and Ward started at a good pace for Temple with the bat, but when Ward was run out going for a run which simply wasn’t there, their impetus was stifled.
Eventually Croker with 60 off 61 balls with nine fours and three sixes was trapped LBW by Arron Campbell to leave Temple at 92-3.
Fifth wicket pair Hales and Thompson added 70 carefully curated runs for the home side, but just took too long to make them and so ate up valuable overs as the Temple innings drifted from 100-4 to 170-5 when Thompson was out for 35.
The home side were eventually all out for 228 in 49.1 overs as the wickets were shared among the bowlers.
Desave (pictured above) topped his great day by taking 2-31 in six overs and it was left to Toby Stirzaker (2-45 in nine) to end things off and give Wellington another 20-point haul to Temple’s nine.
With Ilminster and Yeovil also winning, the Red and Blacks are 17 points behind Yeovil and 24 behind Ilminster – to see the table CLICK HERE.
With seven matches remaining, it looks like a three-way battle for the title.
Wellington now face the bottom two sides in Taunton at home on Saturday and then North Perrott away, before hosting Yeovil at the start of August.
Meanwhile, Swindon visit the Lloyd and Whyte Ground on Sunday for the final of the WEPL Four Regions T20 Cup for tier three sides.
With the club’s Thank You Day tasking place on Saturday, there’s a busy weekend ahead.
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