Last man defies Malvern III (From Malvern Gazette)

Last man defies Malvern III

5:52pm Thursday 9th August 2007 in Cricket

MALVERN III v AMBLECOTE III

MALVERN came away with a winning draw against visitors Amblecote in their Crusader Worcester League Division Eight game, but they were close to achieving the win they needed to further cement second spot in the table behind Nomads.

Malvern were put in and made steady progress, White (40), Sharp (35) and Croft (20) got them off to a good start with important later contributions from Brown (13) and Charlie (16) and Phil (10) Heritage, who ensured that they posted a respectable 167-8 off their 45 overs.

Hall (25-2) and Harris (17-3) being the pick of the Amblecote bowlers.

In reply, the visitors started briskly but lost a couple of early wickets and when Nichols (31) was out it was left to Ryan to marshal the Amblecote reply.

However, they soon began to fall behind the required run rate and wickets fell steadily until at 86-6 off 30 overs the win was beyond them and Malvern strove to get the last four wickets they needed to win.

Brearley though stuck it out for 10 more overs until finally falling to Croft and at 105-7 with only three overs left a draw seemed inevitable.

Ryan was run out for 48 and Buckley bowled Harris which brought last man Priest to the crease with one over to survive. This he did despite a confident stumping appeal from Barnes.

Malvern got the winning draw and tomorrow (Saturday) visit Alvechurch, who they need to beat to halt Avoncroft's challenge for second spot.