Cricket: Ellison’s attack is key as Dulwich break the Bank

BY JOHN LEWIS

Dulwich beat Bank of England by 84 runs in their third match in Group Eight of the regionalized AJ Fordham Sports & Fuller’s Brewery Challenge Cup.

The visitors put Dulwich in to bat, but failed to make an early breakthrough as Chris Purshouse and 15-year-old Veer Patel put on 57 for the first wicket in 12.2 overs.

Purshouse’s dismissal, bowled by skipper Kit Winder for 22, off 32 balls, brought in Sam Ellison. The scoring rate slowed as left-arm spinner Rory Sale bowled his eight overs straight through for 29 runs, while Winder conceded only 14 off six overs in his first spell.

But the next two bowlers could not maintain the pressure, and Ellison in particular went on the attack.

The second wicket pair added 114 in 21 overs before Ellison fell for 73, scored at exactly a run a ball. Patel followed in the next over for a mature 68, scored off 98 balls.

Frankie Brown and Michael Harms took the score to 197-3 after 37.3 overs, whereupon five wickets fell off the next 15 balls as the batsmen sacrificed themselves in a search for quick runs. The innings closed on 219-8 after 40 overs.

Bank’s reply got off to a poor start as skipper Jon Lodwick took two wickets in his first four overs to reduce them to 20-2 in the seventh over.

He came off with figures of 2-10 off six overs, as the seamers gave way to the spinners.

Slow left-armer Alex Gledhill took the third wicket and conceded only five runs in his four-over spell, and 15-year-old leggie Ahmed Khan bowled his eight overs straight through for just 25 runs. He also picked up a wicket to make it 65-4 in the 21st over.

The fifth wicket pair then tried to accelerate, but never looked capable of matching the required rate, which had by now risen to eight an over.

They were however quite severe on Ben Swanson, who conceded 47 off his eight overs but also picked up the next three wickets to go with two fine slip catches earlier in the innings.

Brown bowled five overs to take 1-15, while Gledhill returned to take the last two wickets and finish with 3-12 off six overs. Dulwich had dismissed their opponents for 135 off 38 overs. The bowlers were well supported by keeper Harms, who took three good stumpings off the spinners.

Dulwich have won one, lost one and had one abandoned to stand in sixth place in the eight team group.

Tomorrow they have another difficult fixture away to First Division Beddington, who have the same playing record and are just one bonus point above them in the table