Cricket: Dulwich lose by five wickets at Stoke D’Abernon

BY JOHN SMITH

Dulwich travelled to Stoke D’Abernon for their second match of the season in Division One of the Surrey Championship but had another disappointing day, losing by five wickets.

Dulwich chose to bat but lost skipper Chris Purshouse in the fourth over and Ollie Steele in the seventh, the latter being unluckily run out when the bowler deflected a straight drive onto the stumps. James Schofield and Ahmed Khan took the score to 43 in the 15th over before Khan fell for seven.

Schofield and Frankie Brown added 85 in 22 overs before Schofield fell for 43, off 83 balls, to be followed two balls later by overseas player Daniel Crowley to make it 128-5 after 37 overs.

Jon Lodwick joined Brown, and the pair had taken the score to 149 in the 43rd over when Brown fell for 62, off 96 balls. Lodwick was the next to go off the last ball of the 47th over, having faced 38 balls to make 29 out of the 46 runs scored while he was at the wicket.

Simon Harwood joined Michael Harms and they made merry, scoring 38 runs off the last three overs, 21 of which came from the last over. The innings closed on 212-7, with Harwood undefeated on 20 off 13 balls and Harms 16 off 12.

The Harwood brothers opened the bowling together for Dulwich for the first time, but Chris was unable to find his radar as he bowled five wides (one of which went for four), to see him taken off after conceding 14 runs in two overs.

He was not the only bowler to suffer as Max Subba Row and James Corbishley launched their assault. They had added 89 for the first wicket in just 16.3 overs when Subba Row was stumped by Harms off Khan, having made 47 off 52 balls.

Brown had Junaid Allie caught behind for 12 with the score on 113, but this just brought in Alastair Curran. He blasted 28 at a run a ball in a stand of 48 for the third wicket before falling to Simon Harwood.

Oliver Trower then played second fiddle to Corbishley, and it was a surprise when the latter skied a catch to give Crowley his first wicket for Dulwich with the score on 203. He had made 84 off 104 balls.

With two runs needed for victory Trower smashed Lodwick to long on to give Dulwich their fifth wicket and an unexpected bowling point. Stoke reached their target in the next over with 11.4 overs to spare.

Dulwich will reflect that they will need to put in a better all round performance if they are to consolidate their place in the division.

This weekend they have a difficult home fixture against Spencer, who narrowly missed out on promotion last year and who have won both of their opening matches in the current campaign.