SPL Premier Division cricket: Lymington CC batters brought back to earth by South Wilts showing

SPL Premier Division
South Wilts CC 212-9
Lymington 90

HAVING won their previous two games, Lymington failed to capitalise on a modest South Wilts score, and a batting collapse saw a heavy 122-run loss.

In the first timed game of the season, Lymington had the gettable target of 212, but the chase never looked on, with wickets lost steadily throughout their innings.

Lymington captain Ben Rogers lost the toss, with South Wilts captain Ben Draper electing to bat. Devon National Counties player James Degg (66) and his 13 fours helped get South Wilts off to a storming start as he and Jack Stearman (21) put on 76 for the first wicket.

Straight after the drinks break, Lymo’s best bowler Josh Royan (3-16) got among the wickets having Stearman LBW with Monam Abbas taking the wicket of Degg thanks to a good catch by Dan Cox.

From there, South Wilts struggled, and seven wickets fell for just 63 runs, with the ball keeping low.

Monam bowled tidily (2-42) while opening bowler Lewis Martin (2-56) returned to remove two middle-order batters.

Matthew Falconer (41) and Tom Grant (20) stemmed the bleeding, putting on 44 for the eighth wicket before Cox (2-24) had both caught.

In reply, Lymington got off to a disastrous start as both openers fell to Matthew Burton (3-41) with only five runs on the board.

Ryan Scott (31) and Lymo's most consistent batsman of the season so far, Terry Crabb (37), provided some stability as they put on 55 for the third wicket.

However, left-handed medium-pacer Tom Grant proved challenging to handle, and he bowled Scott before ripping into most of the rest of the Lymington batting, taking five wickets for 29 runs in a haul that included Gareth Berg (5).

Lymington still had a chance while Crabb was still there, but he fell to a brilliant caught-and-bowled by Tom Lewis (2-5), who usually plays for South Wilts II.

There was little resistance after that, with the last eight wickets falling for just 33 runs and the side all out in the 27th over.

Lymington take on local rivals Bashley (Rydal) away in their next match on Saturday at 11am.