Cricket: Dulwich suffer heavy defeat at Sutton

BY JOHN LEWIS

Another batting failure saw Dulwich go down to defeat by 135 runs in a rain affected Surrey Championship Division 1 match at Sutton last weekend.

Dulwich won the toss and elected to field on an overcast day with rain forecast.

Jon Lodwick took the first wicket in the sixth over with the score on 26, but this only brought in former Kent player Fabian Cowdrey, grandson of former England captain Colin. He had already reached 61 out of a total of 108-1 in 23 overs when the rain duly arrived and drove the players from the field, resulting in a loss of 26 overs.

Simon Harwood struck in the first over after the resumption, but Cowdrey continued to accumulate steadily until falling to Ahmed Khan for 111, off 118 balls.

Khan picked up two more wickets to finish with 3-75 off 16 overs, while Harvey Booth also claimed a wicket before Sutton declared on 251-6 after 48 overs, leaving Dulwich 46 overs to get the runs.

The Dulwich reply started disastrously when the first three wickets went down in the first seven overs for just 13 runs, with two of them failing to score.

Booth joined skipper Chris Purshouse in a stand of 65 in 12.2 overs for the fourth wicket, but this turned out to be the only significant stand of the innings.

Purshouse gave solid support before falling for 18, off 43 balls, with the score on 78, and Booth followed 10 runs later after making exactly 50, his first half-century for the Club, off just 44 balls.

Khan hit 16 at a run a ball to take the score to 103, but Cowdrey then took two wickets in three balls to reduce Dulwich to 107-8 after 26.3 overs.

Lodwick and Kaif Ramzan attempted to bat out time, with Ramzan blocking out 26 deliveries without scoring, and Lodwick making just five off 22 balls before running out of partners. The last seven wickets had gone down for 38 runs, and the last five for just 13, to give Sutton victory with 11 overs to spare.

Dulwich took just one point from this match but remained in seventh place.

This weekend they have a home fixture against Old Wimbledonians, who won the first clash between the sides but are now 18 points behind in eighth place.

Both sides will see victory as crucial to steer them clear of the relegation zone.