Cricket: Dulwich claim winning draw against Beddington

Dulwich had the better of a fluctuating match against Beddington in Division 1 of the Surrey Championship, but were unable to separate the last wicket pair and had to settle for a winning draw.

Dulwich were put into bat, and lost James Schofield in the third over, caught at slip off former Leicestershire quickie Ryan Cummins.

This gave the signal for Harrison Perry to launch an attack which saw him score 60 out of the next 88 runs in partnership with skipper Ollie Steele. His innings came off just 67 balls, and was his maiden Championship half-century.

Steele was joined by Apoorv Wankhade who launched an even more devastating assault. He had already reached 46 (off 36 balls) out of a partnership of 64 for the third wicket when Steele’s fine supporting innings of 39 off 96 balls came to an end.

Karim Marcelle and Chris Purshouse went cheaply to make it 178-5 after 41 overs, but Ahmed Khan then played another fine supporting innings, making 17 (off 39 balls) in a stand of 56 for the sixth wicket.

Michael Harms, Kaif Ramzan and Jon Lodwick all fell within the next five overs to reduce Dulwich to 255-9. With the last man in Wankhade then hit his fourth and fifth sixes of the innings before holing out next ball with the score on 267, having made 121 off just 87 balls. This was his second century of the campaign and lifted his aggregate to 455 runs in seven innings.

Dulwich had been dismissed in 56.3 overs, leaving Beddington 63 overs to get the runs.

Their innings started in similar fashion when Felix Watson-Smyth took the first wicket in his second over, followed by a stand of 49 for the second wicket.

Perry broke the stand in a brief two over spell, and Ramzan struck twice in successive balls in the next over to remove Beddington’s captain for three and overseas player for a golden duck. Khan took his first wicket in his fifth over to reduce Beddington to 94-5 after 27 overs. Alfie Gardner and Shamar Anderson launched a counter-attack which saw 73 runs come off the next 12 overs to take Beddington to 167-5 off 39 overs at the evening drinks break.

With 101 runs required off the last 24 overs they seemed well placed for a victory charge, but instead the batsmen opted for defence.

Only 34 runs came off the next 15 overs for the loss of Anderson’s wicket to a run out.

The match seemed to be drifting to a tame conclusion when a wicket apiece for Watson-Smyth and Ramzan reduced Beddington to 202-8 in the 56th over, leaving Dulwich with 7.4 overs to get the last two wickets. Amid mounting tension Khan got the ninth in the 60th over, but the bowlers were unable to get a further breakthrough and the innings closed on 208-9 after 63.

Ramzan finished with 3-48 off 14 overs, Watson-Smyth 2-48 off 12, and Khan 2-58 off 18. Lodwick, playing his first game after returning from injury, bowled 17 overs in three spells for just 41 runs.

Dulwich gained 14 points, the maximum possible for a winning draw, and remain in third place. This weekend they travel to Old Hamptonians, who finally won for the first time on Saturday, but who still languish in ninth place and will themselves be looking for another victory to lift them out of the relegation zone.