BROADSTONE 168-5 (19pts) beat MARTINSTOWN 171 (5pts) by five wickets

MARTINSTOWN fell to defeat away at Broadstone in a rain-hit match that saw the home side face a reduced target to secure victory In the Dorset Funeral Plan Premier Division.

The home side won the toss and elected to field, which immediately paid dividends when Martinstown captain Ed Nichols was caught by James Park from a Caleb Rowe delivery.

Rowe (4-60) had a superb day as he whittled away Martinstown’s opening four batsmen, who put just 56 runs on the board in that time.

However, Martinstown then hit back through Tom Pope (49) and Ryan Chase (24) who boosted them up to 127 runs before the latter was caught by Daniel Cook from a Pete Russell ball.

Tom Pope was trapped lbw by Matt Spraggs to put Martinstown 133-6 and Mike Kennedy-Barnard was dismissed just one run later.

However, Nathan McNab and James Reynolds then put on a 30-run partnership to edge the away side up to 164-7 but then Reynolds was run out by Luke Carter.

The rest of the batsmen were then dismissed shortly afterwards to leave Martinstown all out for 171.

Due to the rain Broadstone were then set a reduced total to chase and the home side initially got off to a bad start, when Carter was bowled by Chris Read (1-43) with just seven runs on the board.

However, Daniel Cook and James Park then put together a fantastic 91-run partnership to put the winning total firmly in sight.

Cook was then trapped lbw by McNab and Park was run out by Monty Payne as Broadstone stuttered to 105-3.

Solomon Beer was then trapped lbw by George Pope 11 runs later as Martinstown began to hit back.

However, Broadstone were able to boost their tally to 141-4 before Pete Russell was bowled by Charlie Durant.

This would prove to be the last wicket taken as Broadstone duo Ashley Collison and Steve Trembath fired them over the winning line.

After the match, Martinstown captain Ed Nichols said: “It was obviously quite a rain-affected game. We had light drizzle for most of the afternoon, coming on and off the pitch for a while. But it was good to get a game in but they have come in and knocked off a middling total in 30 overs without too much trouble.

I think if we had kept it a bit tighter it might have given us more time to get into the lower order a bit, but they have just done the job on the day.”

“We lost four early wickets to some good bowling, we have not got too many complaints about that. I think that fifth wicket partnership with Tom Pope and Ryan Chase did really well to put them on the back foot. We were a bit unlucky to lose that fifth wicket but after that the tail tried their best to dig in but we did not get a big enough score.”

CONTACT ME:

t: 01305 830990

e: aidan.williams

@dorsetecho.co.uk

twitter: @EchosportAidan