Dulwich pick up fourth consecutive victory after edging past Malden Wanderers

BY JOHN LEWIS

Dulwich recorded their fourth consecutive victory in Division 1 of the AJ Sports Surrey Championship, defeating Malden Wanderers by four wickets.

Dulwich invited their opponents to bat on a slow pitch and bowled them out for 185. The wickets were shared around as skipper Ollie Steele rotated his bowlers. Sam Seecharan, playing his first match of the season, opened the bowling and took the first wicket, and Kaif Ramzan picked up the next two.

Felix Watson-Smyth claimed the fourth to reduce Wanderers to 60-4 after 20.1 overs. Apoorv Wankhade joined the attack for the first time this season and claimed the fifth wicket with a score of 89. The sixth wicket pair added 45 in eight overs, but both batsmen then fell in successive overs, with Ramzan taking his third wicket and Harrison Perry getting the next to make it 137-7 in the 38th over.

The eighth wicket partnership put on 28 before Wankhade took his second wicket with a return catch. Ahmed Khan, who had not been at his best early on, then returned to pick up the last two wickets in successive overs to dismiss their opponents off the first ball of the 49th over.

The Wanderers attack was spearheaded by Saul Anstey, who bowled a testing opening spell, conceding just two runs in his first five overs and taking the wickets of Chris Purshouse in his second over, and James Schofield in his fifth. But runs had flowed freely at the other end, and the score had already reached 30 in the ninth over when Schofield fell for 17. Steele came in to join Wankhade, and the pair put together a partnership of 113 in 21 overs for the third wicket, which all but made the game safe.

Wankhade once again led the way with another commanding innings, and Steele gave solid support before being dismissed for 35, off 63 balls. Wankhade was stumped eleven runs later, having made 89 off 78 balls, and having lifted his aggregate to 286 runs in four matches. 32 runs were still required, but Seecharan and Karim Marcelle added 21 of them before Marcelle fell with the score on 175. Seecharan continued in company with Khan before being bowled for 20, off 27 balls, with the scores level. The target was reached three balls later via a wide, with 11.2 overs to spare.

Dulwich have thus achieved the rare feat of winning all four 50 over matches at the start of the campaign, to stand at the head of the table. Next week the format switches to timed games when they have another tough match, away to Spencer, who lost for the first time on Saturday but who are close behind in second place.