Dulwich stay second in AJ Sports Surrey Championship after win over Normandy
BY JOHN LEWIS
Dulwich thoroughly outplayed third-placed Normandy to defeat them by eight wickets and remain in second place in Division 1 of the AJ Sports Surrey Championship.
The visitors chose to bat, and the openers advanced steadily against the speed of Harvey Booth and the off-spin of Kaif Ramzan. Both bowled well without much luck, and they gave way after twelve overs to quickie Will Jenkins and left-arm spinner Felix Watson-Smyth.
Jenkins made the breakthrough with the score on 47 in the 15th over, Watson-Smyth took the second wicket in the 22nd over and Jenkins struck again in the 23rd to make it 67-3. Ramzan returned to take the fourth and Ahmed Khan took the fifth on the stroke of lunch, which was taken at 97-5 after 29.5 overs.
Khan struck again in his next over, but a seventh-wicket stand of 27 held Dulwich up for ten overs as the score moved to 128. The last four wickets then fell in the space of five overs.
Khan took two in successive overs, Jenkins returned to remove number eight Tyler Bradley, who top-scored with 27, in the next over, and Khan took the last wicket three balls later. Jenkins finished with 3-13 off eight overs, while Khan took 5-6 off his last 8.2 overs to finish with 5-17 off 10.2. This was the leg-spinner’s fourth haul of five or more wickets this season and takes his total to 36 at a phenomenal average of 9.78. Normandy had lost all ten wickets for 93 runs and were all out for 140 off 45.2 overs.
Khan then opened the batting in partnership with James Schofield. The pair added 31 in 10 overs before Schofield was caught behind for 17, and skipper Ollie Steele fell the same way next ball. This brought in Apoorv Wankhade to join Khan, and the pair added an unbeaten 113 off 20 overs to see their side home. Wankhade once again led the way, reaching his seventh score of fifty or more this season off 49 balls and finishing with 61 off 59. He has now scored 701 runs at an average of 70.1. Khan batted sensibly to make 44 off 87 balls and complete a fine all-round performance.
Dulwich gain 24 points from this match, and have opened up a gap of 25 points over Malden Wanderers, who have moved into third place.
Dulwich travel to Malden this weekend for what will be another crucial match, and will be hoping to repeat their victory in the first match between the sides.