Sport

Wanderers finish season with a fine win

Glamorgan Star news 30/08/2022

2 minutes read

SPORT | Cricket – Wanderers finish season with a fine win

Barry Wanderers’ eventful league campaign came to an end with a fine 83-run win over rivals Porth at Hayes Point.

The Wanderers had lost only one game batting first this season and when Porth won the toss and opted to bowl first, captain Ram was not too disappointed.

Porth however, got off to a great start with star man Neil Blundell falling in the second over for 5. After that early setback, Ram and Peter Coleman built a solid second wicket partnership, taking the Wanderers up to 54-1 after 10 overs. Coleman departed for an excellent 27 in the 14th over, caught at mid on off the bowling of Hill. Ram and Kunal Mhadgut combined to take the score up to 89 before Ram was dismissed just before drinks were taken, making a vital contribution of 29 runs.

The match was evenly poised at 94-3 off 20 overs and Porth were hopeful of restricting the Wanderers to a sub 200 score. No 5 batter Abhilash ‘Abhi’ Rammohan had other ideas and with support at the other end from Mhadgut (sporting a broken thumb), they took the game by the scruff of the neck.

Together, the pair combined clean boundary hitting with hard running between the wickets to up the scoring rate. Mhadgut (who’d taken a blow to his injured thumb earlier in his innings) battled valiantly before being bowled by Powell for 43 with the score on 168 in the 29th over.

The Wanderers marched on and added 84 runs in the final 10 overs. Abhi was out caught for a sublime 73 and excellent support from Ed Williams (24), Aditya Tamatham (10) and Patrick Lane (8) enabled the Wanderers to finish on 259-8 from their 40 overs.

Elliott Skehel (7-0-40-3) and Sudhee Surendran Nair opened the bowling for the Wanderers and despite a wayward start from Skehel, he eventually found the line to complement his pace and removed Porth’s top three batters for just four runs in a blistering spell of bowling.

Jonny Hill proceeded to provide the backbone of the Porth innings and led a gutsy fightback, taking his side to 100 at the 20-over mark. Porth were unable to kick on however and when Hill fell for a superb 61 (out caught off the bowling of Blundell, 5.5-0-15-3), the remaining Porth batters struggled to match the scoring rate to see them home. They were eventually all out for 176 in the 36th over. The final Porth wicket taken by the Wanderers sparked jubilant scenes and meant that they finished above Porth in the league by a solitary point.