Bromsgrove captain
Mark Evenson won the toss and chose to bat first – so 24 points were
up for grabs. Bromsgrove openers Ashley Newdick and Dan Naughton
faced in-form Liam Smith and Mark Hardinges and neither bowler made
it easy for them. Naughton was dropped on 1 by Andy Ford at second
slip but luckily for the captain he edged one to be caught behind by
Ash Brewer the very next ball from Smith. Alexei Kervezee on a break
from Worcestershire came in at 3 and he was soon joined by ex BGCC
George Rhodes as Hardinges trapped Newdick lbw for 8. 11 for 2
became 19 for 3 as Rhodes departed early for the second time against
his former club - this time he was clean bowled by Smith for 1.
Kervezee and new batsman Jaden Levitt hit several boundaries as
first Alex Hepburn then Jon Dovey joined the attack. Hardinges took
his second wicket when Kervezee was well caught by Jon Dovey at
point for 21. Lewis Cordes joined Levitt with Bromsgrove 39 for 4
after 12 overs. Levitt brought the 50 up in the 14th over with a
four through fine leg. Dovey broke their partnership of 28 when
Cordes nicked one to keeper Brewer for 10. An inspired change of
bowling brought on Blair Kingsland and took a fine caught and bowled
to dismiss Levitt for 18.
With Bromsgrove now 69 for 6 off 19 over new batsmen Tom Green and
Mark Evenson knew they had to stick around. Runs weren’t easy to
come by off either Dovey or Kingsland and the score passed 100 in
the 28th over. Green and Evenson had put on 32 when Kingsland struck
again trapping Evenson lbw for 13. Kingsland’s third wicket came in
his next over when Mikey Wyres also fell lbw for 4. 105 for 8 became
105 all out as Smith returned to the attack taking two wickets in
his returning over. First Green was caught by Kingsland at mid-off
for a creditable 19, then Tom Hill was clean bowled for a duck
leaving James Ganderton not out 0. Smith finished with excellent
figures of 4 for 24 – to take his wicket tally to 10 in 3 games off
only 29 overs.
With the Bromsgrove innings finishing 22 overs early BGCC took to
the field before tea, with 77 overs to get 106. Bromsgrove’s lack of
seamers meant Wyres and Kervezee opening the bowling and neither
caused the Green openers Adam Dovey and Mark Hooper any real
difficulty. Dovey in particular played both seamers well with
several nice boundaries. Captain Evenson decided spin was needed and
brought himself on in the 10th over and he made the first
breakthrough as Hooper was given out lbw for 8. Newdick joined the
attack and 33 for 1 became 39 for 3 as he had Alex Hepburn caught at
silly mid-on by Evenson for 0. His second wicket came as Adam Dovey
unluckily played on, his commendable 29 including 6 fours.
New batsmen Alex Milton and Mark Hardinges played patiently and
carefully taking the Green to 45 for 3 at tea. Bromsgrove
unsurprisingly continued with spin after tea but the BGCC batsmen
were more than ready for them. Milton played intelligently while
Hardinges decided to take the bowlers on. His first scoring shot to
take the score past 50 was a giant straight 6 off Newdick. James
Ganderton replaced Newdick and Hardinges took full advantage of this
hitting 27 off his three overs including 3 huge sixes – the last of
which brought up the century. Hardinges then hit the winning
boundary in the next over – taking BGCC to 108 for 3 and 24 points.
Milton was not out 22 and Hardinges not out 48 including 3 fours and
5 sixes. Bromsgrove 1 point means the Green go 23 points clear of
them and into 5th in their own right – only 3 points off third
place.
