Southern Premier League cricket: Lymington beat Burridge
Southern Premier League
Lymington 200
Burridge 158
LYMINGTON had a tough day at home to Burridge – who were second in the table before the game – but a gutsy performance with both bat and ball saw Lymo home by 42 runs.
Gareth Berg got his season with Lymington well under way with two aggressive bowling spells. Steady batting from Mo Abbas and Terry Crabb ensured that the side had something to bowl at, although it might not have been enough had Burridge not been missing some key players, including Hilio de Abreu who returned to South Africa last week.
Captain Ben Rogers won the toss and Lymington decided to bat on a good wicket that offered some help to the seamers with some variable bounce and a little turn for the spinners.
Ben was soon out but then another good knock from fellow opener Mo Abbas (51) of which 38 were in boundaries, together with Ryan Scott (16) saw them post 73 runs for the second wicket.
This brought in Terry Crabb (38) with a patient knock holding the middle order together, backed up by birthday boy Dan Cox (24) and Josh Royan (21 not out).
Overseas player Mathew Goles (4-33) polished off the tail including the wicket of Lewis Martin (1) after the umpire initially gave him not out to being caught behind. As a result, Lymington did not use 7.4 of its allotted 50 overs.
The other main wicket takers were Sullivan White (2-39) and Inayat Ullah (2-40).
The Burridge innings was always going to depend heavily on Australian Goles who has scored 184 runs in his first two league outings. After surviving a difficult catch attaempt, Berg got his revenge by trapping Goles for just three runs. Berg went on to take 3-20 in his eight overs including that of fellow opener Jack Paskins (11).
Captain Joe Collings-Wells (22) held the innings together for a while before an excellent run-out by Scott together with Azimunnoor Chowdhury (26). Father-and-son Assad (2-14) and Mo Abbas (2-35) both made run-getting difficult, putting pressure on the later order batsmen despite James Hughes (39).
The innings finally subsided in the 46th over to give Lymington a hard-fought victory.
This sees Lymington joint second in the premier division table with two other sides. The team will look to build on this with another home game, against South Wilts, on Saturday in the first timed game of the season and an earlier 11am start.