Cricket: Seven-wicket win for Dulwich against Old Wimbledonians

Dulwich dominated their crucial match against Old Wimbledonians in Division 1 of the Surrey Championship and cruised to victory by seven wickets.

Dulwich won the toss and invited their opponents to bat. At first the decision seemed questionable as the openers added 28 in the first nine overs against Simon Harwood and Jon Lodwick. The match changed abruptly when Harwood struck with the first ball of the 10th over, a run out followed off the third ball, Lodwick took a wicket in the next over and Harwood struck in each of his next two.

Harwood gave way to Kaif Ramzan, who took a wicket with his first ball to reduce Wimbledonians to 42-6. They had lost six wickets in 8.1 overs for just 14 runs. Ramzan was replaced after two overs by Ahmed Khan, but Salamat Hussein and Gary Abdoll survived without any alarms and had doubled the score by the lunch interval, which was taken on 84-6 after 28 overs.

Harwood returned after the resumption to dismiss Abdoll, who top scored with 32, off 43 balls.

After one more over he was replaced once more by Ramzan who took two wickets, both leg before, off the last two balls of the over. He was denied the chance of a hat trick as the last man failed to survive Lodwick’s next over to see his side dismissed for 106, leaving Hussein undefeated having faced 64 balls for his 25.

Lodwick bowled unchanged from one end, apart from one over just before the interval, to finish with 2-52 off 16.5 overs. Harwood took 4-31 off 11, while Ramzan had the remarkable figures of 3-1-11-3.

Wimbledonians skipper Ewan Parker had noted that Ramzan had achieved some turn and decided to open the bowling himself from the same end, with pace from the other.

He was rewarded with the wicket of Khan in the first over. This brought in overseas player Apoorv Wankhade, returning after missing the previous three matches with a knee injury. He was still restricted in his movement and scored entirely in boundaries and singles, but nevertheless powered to 32 off just 21 balls before falling to a remarkable catch at long on.

This gave Parker his third wicket after also dismissing James Schofield for four in his previous over.

Skipper Chris Purshouse and Veer Patel, playing his first game of the season for Dulwich after the end of the school term, came together with the score on 38-3 after just 6.3 overs.

With no time pressure they were able to bat steadily and pick off the loose balls, which they did until Purshouse took a liking to some undistinguished change bowling.

The target was reached off the second ball of the 21st over, with Purshouse undefeated on 42 off 46 balls, and Patel 23 off 45.

Dulwich remain seventh in the table, but the gap above Wimbledonians, who remain in eighth place, has widened to 42 points.

This weekend Dulwich travel to Walton on Thames, who are fifth, and will be looking to repeat their victory from the first meeting between the sides.