Cricket: Dulwich secure winning draw at Camberley

BY JOHN LEWIS

Dulwich fought back well to restrict their opponents to 270 in their Surrey Championship Division 1 match at Camberley, but found the target too demanding and were obliged to settle for a winning draw on Saturday.

The early part of the Camberley innings was dominated by opening bat Max Shoveller, who raced to a century before lunch.

They had set off at a rate of six an over, but Kaif Ramzan broke the opening stand in his first over with the score on 54 and new bat Todd Hutcheson was unable to get going against the spinners.

Camberley went into lunch on 162-1 after 39 overs, but Ramzan removed Hutcheson with the second ball after the interval. He had made a painstaking 22, scored off 89 balls in a partnership of 108 for the second wicket with Shoveller. The scoring rate speeded up again and the score had reached 204 in the 47th over when Ahmed Khan had Shoveller caught for 139, off 145 balls.

Khan had now been joined in the attack by Jon Lodwick. Both had gone wicketless before the interval, but they now bowled in tandem as they worked their way through the rest of the innings.

Khan added three more wickets to finish his second spell with 4-55 off 13 overs, while completing a mammoth stint of 27 overs for 4-114 in the innings.

Lodwick took 2-28 off 11 overs in his second spell to finish with 2-45 off 15 for the innings, as well as taking three catches in the slips.

The ninth wicket fell to a run out as Dulwich completed a fine fight back by taking seven wickets in 17 overs for 64 runs.

The last pair batted out the remaining 10 balls to finish on 270-9 after the full 66 overs, leaving Dulwich just 54 overs to get the runs.

Ollie Steele fell in the third over of the innings, but James Schofield and skipper Chris Purshouse took the score to 45 after 12 overs before Schofield fell for 28 off 37 balls.

Purshouse fell for 34, off 48 balls, and Ramzan followed two overs later to make it 76-4 after 20 overs.

Khan now joined Apoorv Wankhade in the highest stand of the innings, putting on 56 in 11 overs for the fifth wicket before Wankhade fell to an astonishing one-handed catch on the boundary, having scored 38 off 49 balls.

Khan and Tom Bishop took the score to 150 when Khan was caught behind for 40, off 48 balls, and Bishop followed two overs later for 18 off 26 to make it 165-7 after 37.2 overs.

This brought together Michael Harms and Harvey Booth, who added 48 in nine overs for the eighth wicket before keeper Harms fell for 21, off 28 balls, with the score on 213 after 46.2 overs.

With hopes of victory receding Lodwick opted for defence at one end while Booth took the score past 221 for the winning draw and 225 for an extra batting point before falling for 44, the highest score of the innings, off just 47 balls.

With nine balls remaining Lodwick and Isaac Eustance batted out time to finish on 230-9 and secure the draw.

Seven of the batsmen had got a start, but none had gone on to play the commanding innings needed to secure victory.

Dulwich take 13 points from this match and remain in seventh place. This weekend they have a home fixture against Banstead, who have taken over as leaders after this week’s matches.