CHARLTON DOWN 155 (4pts) lost to MARNHULL 159-2 (20pts) by eight wickets

NEWLY-PROMOTED Charlton Down opened their County Division Two season with a comprehensive eight-wicket defeat to a strong Marnhull team.

Marnhull captain James Vitali produced a match-winning performance of taking 3-20, a catch and then an unbeaten 90 to help secure victory.

This was the first defeat suffered by Pete Tucker’s men since August 2016.

After winning the toss, a depleted Charlton Down elected to bat and Matt Lovell and Jae Miller punished any short bowling and moved the score quickly on to 38 after only six overs before Stuart Cundy took an amazing one-handed catch in the slips to remove Miller for 20 off Zack Caunt (2-33).

Only four runs later, Lovell was yorked by Caunt for four with the score on 42-2.

It was soon 45-3 when Dan Stevens was bowled by the experienced Edwin Ralph (3-30).

Charlton then looked to have turned the game their way with Sam Roles (44) and Kim Park batting beautifully dispatching balls to the boundary at regular intervals.

It was the Marnhull captain Vitali (3-30) who struck twice in two overs to reduce Charlton from 110-3 to 119-6.

Firstly, he bowled Park for 16 bringing the partnership of 68 to an end and then had Javed Gill caught by Dorset over-50s’ wicketkeeper Tim Horn.

Cundy had the dangerous Roles caught by Max Ritchie at deep mid-on for 44 which included five fours and a six.

Ralph came back into the attack and used his experience to remove both 15-year-old debutants Keiran Heath (4), Lewis Harrington (0) and Sid Dunford (15) with the score remaining on 132-9.

A stubborn partnership of 23 between Rich Fagence (1) and Tommy Tucker (9) added 23 runs before the returning Vitali struck to have Tucker leg before and leave Charlton on 155 all out in only 37 overs.

The Marnhull response got off to a flyer with 24 coming from the first two overs and they never looked back.

Miller struck to have Max Ritchie (3) caught by the grateful Dunford at extra cover for seven with the score on 34-1.

Vitali (90no) and Harkin (30) batted well but Park (1-28) removed the latter to end their stand of 87.

But it was fitting for Vitali to score the winning runs and secure the victory for Marnhull.