MARNHULL 212-3 (19pts) beat WEYMOUTH 210-9 (6pts) by seven wickets

WEYMOUTH slipped to a third away defeat of the County Division Two season as Marnhull cruised to a seven-wicket victory at Marnhull Recreation Ground.

After being inserted on a damp wicket, Weymouth lost Neil Walton (1) to a plumb lbw as Edwin Ralph (1-18) struck early.

Despite the early loss, John Wilson (76) batted superbly in partnership with Dom Webb (25) during a 105-run stand for the second wicket.

But Webb then fell to the gentle bowling of Malcolm West (5-33), the wickets of Wilson, Simon Browne (8) and Harry Mitchell (3) all followed playing loose shots as Weymouth stumbled to 157-5.

James Vitali (3-31) then struck quickly, picking up a marginal lbw decision against Kieron Womble (9) before accounting for Jack Taylor (1) and Sami Rathnayake (0) – the latter a stunning catch from wicketkeeper Tim Horn – in successive balls.

A fabulous last-wicket stand of 42 between Lloyd Beals (22no) and Shafeek Urumancheri (14no) then helped Weymouth to 210-9.

Beals (1-39) landed an early blow by bowling Horn (6) as Marnhull reached 20-1 in their reply.

But captain Vitali (97) batted beautifully, cracking 13 fours and a six after surviving an early edge past the slips off Walton (0-44).

Vitali was aided by a streaky (55) from Danny Harkin, who was dropped twice and lofted several shots between fielders to frustrate the Seasiders.

When they finally halted the massive 162-run stand through Urumancheri (2-52), who removed both men, the damage had been done as Max Ritchie (22no) and Zach Caunt (7no) guided the hosts to a handsome win.

Speaking to Echosport following the defeat, Weymouth vice-captain Simon Browne admitted Vitali’s excellent innings had “taken the game away” from his side.

He said: “Halfway through we were looking at 240 possibly, so that’s a bit disappointing that we did collapse but we rallied in the end to get up to 210.

“Fair play to their opener who scored 97, he took the game away from us. The other guy that batted with him rode his luck but if you put on a 160-run partnership in a game that should stand you in good stead.

“They’ve won it pretty comfortably and sometimes you get beaten by the better side. We could’ve played better but we stuck at it in the field.

“From the point of view of winning games we just need to apply ourselves a little bit better in the batting department.”

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