Malvern rejoin promotion race (From Malvern Gazette)

Malvern rejoin promotion race

6:24pm Thursday 9th August 2007 in Cricket

MALVERN v COOMBS WOOD

MALVERN hauled themselves back into the WCL Division Two promotion race on Saturday following a brilliant fightback against Coombs Wood at Regency Road.

The visitors batted first and were in complete control of the game, with openers Chawla and Boswell posting a superb 150-run stand for the first wicket.

Home captain Luke Halion then turned to slow bowler Steven Carter and immediately the move paid dividends as Carter accounted for Boswell. Chawla completed a magnificent century but when Jonny Dovey got him out, the visitors began to wobble.

Carter continued to bowl superbly with an excellent exhibition of flight and control and was the main reason that Malvern restricted Coombs Wood to 232. He finished with an excellent 6-46 and showed that he is more than capable of filling the void of the first team slow bowler.

Jonny Dovey also played his part with his best spell of the season, while Tom Poole, Jeremy Lee and Rob Francis all bowled excellent spells.

Malvern set about the run chase in positive mood, Adam Dovey and Mark Baugh both looked in good form before departing. Ollie Bendall showed glimpses of his class while at the centre but the run out of Luke Halion seemed a fatal blow and at 80-5 Malvern looked in need of some inspiration. They found it in the shape of Rob Francis and Andy Cullen, who put together a brilliant stand of 100 in only 15 overs before Cullen was was superbly caught by Maurice White for 37, an excellent innings.

Francis was now simply in unstoppable form smashing virtually every ball for a 4 or a 6 and Poole joined in the carnage peppering the boundary with ease and incredibly, by the 44th over, Malvern were celebrating victory.

Francis finishing unbeaten with a brilliant 86 and Poole a superb undefeated 23.

Malvern would like to thank Andrews Hair Studios for their generous sponsorship.

ON Sunday, Malvern entertained RSRE and the highlights of the game were Jonny Dovey and Rob Francis both posting 50s, Mark Baugh's three wickets in four balls and a promising spell of bowling by Simon Jones.

However, the best innings of the day was played by Anthony Arnold, who played some marvellous shots all round the ground to reach an excellent unbeaten century to lead Malvern to victory by three wickets.