SPCL Premier Division cricket: Lymington trounce Havant as Gareth Berg ices Havant batters with five-wicket haul
SPCL Premier Division
Havant CC 193
Lymington CC 194-5
LYMINGTON were too good for bottom-of-the-table Havant, with the fifth-placed away side picking up a comfortable five-wicket victory.
The returning Gareth Berg led the way with the ball, securing a five-wicket haul, while Monam Abbas put in another masterful batting performance.
Both sides lost early wickets on a dry Indian-looking pitch, but the batters soon took over.
Lymington might have lost the toss for the seventh time this season, but they were not asked to bat first this time.
Havant soon had half their side back in the pavilion in no time, with only 34 runs on the board in just 10 overs – thanks mainly to Berg (5-52), who was fresh back from his success with the Italian cricket team in the ICC T20 Europe qualifiers.
Despite being hit on the side of the head in a pre-match warm-up, it did not prevent him from taking four of the first five wickets.
Berg was helped by fellow opener Liam Thompson (1-43), but Havant were let off the hook as Richard Hindley (84 not out), batting sensibly with captain Peter Hopson (37), put on 93 for the sixth wicket.
However, Assad Abbas (4-18 in 11 overs) took advantage of the spinner-friendly wicket, removing Hopson and polishing off the Havant tail.
By the time the Havant innings subsided, seven batters had been caught, with Jovan Dhariwal taking two.
A score of 193 never seemed enough despite the helpful wicket, yet Lymington got off to an even worse start with three batters out and only 10 runs on the board.
Left-arm spinner Chris Morgan (3-61) had both openers out, with Jovan Dhariwal (2) controversially out LBW and Ben Rogers (6) caught and bowled.
Berg (2), promoting himself to number three, also fell early, lasting just 10 balls.
However, this brought Monam Abbas (83 not out) and Kamran Dhariwal (53) together, who put on 104 for the fourth wicket in just 24 overs, soon getting on top of the Havant bowlers.
Abbas was then joined by wicketkeeper/batsman Conor Moors (28), putting on 49 for the fifth wicket.
Finally, Josh Royan (9 not out) came to the fore to see Lymington home by five wickets with as many as 15 overs to spare.
Abbas, unbeaten for the second week in a row, improved his batting average to 64.71, the highest in the division, scoring 453 runs, 138 more than the second-highest batter.
With the win, Lymo moved into the top half of the table.
On Saturday, they host third-placed Hampshire Academy at 11am.
