DULWICH STARTED the new season in Division 2 of the Travelbag Surrey Championship with a 39-run defeat at Dorking last weekend.
The home side chose to bat on a slow pitch. Openers Bradley Erasmus and Tom Lister made a solid start against tight bowling from Jon Lodwick and debutant Phil McCormack, taking the score to 43 after 13 overs.
Alex Gledhill and James Bridgland kept them on an even tighter rein, and it was Bridgland who broke through with the score on 66 after 23 overs, taking two wickets in three balls. This brought in Danny Douthwaite, who went on the attack, taking 17 off Salaar Waqar’s first over on his way to 41 off 43 balls. Waqar responded in his second over by having Erasmus lbw for 32, off a painstaking 83 balls, to make it 101-3.
Douthwaite fell to Kamran Munawar with the score on 136, whereupon Ben Rogers was joined by Cameron Pitt in a stand of 59 in ten overs for the fifth wicket. Rogers fell for 27 to Gledhill, who took a second wicket three balls later.
Kieran Corbitt was run out when both batsmen found themselves at the same end, but some late blows by Pitt, who finished with an unbeaten 47 off just 43 balls, lifted his side to 219 for seven after their 50 overs.
Extras had contributed 37 runs to the total, including 19 scored as wides. Gledhill and Bridgland finished their ten overs with 2-27 and 2-28 respectively, while Lodwick conceded just 22 runs off his ten.
Douthwaite and Corbitt then combined in a hostile opening spell against new skipper Ed Stolle and Nick Hudson. Douthwaite struck in his third over, bowling Stolle for six, and followed up in his next over by having Ed Hopkins caught in the slips to reduce Dulwich to 16-2. Hudson was then joined by the second debutant, keeper Jonny Evans. Together they added 43 in just 7.2 overs before both fell with the score on 59, Hudson having made 28 (off 40 balls), and Evans 11 off 20.
Waqar and Will Bancroft therefore had to consolidate, but gradually upped the tempo, adding 53 together in 16 overs to take Dulwich to 112-4 in the 31st over. Waqar’s dismissal for 30 was soon followed by Bancroft for 22, and Lodwick and McCormack were both bowled without scoring. Dulwich had lost four wickets in five overs for just four runs to make it 116-8 after 36.
Munawar and Gledhill then produced the third good partnership of the innings, adding exactly 50 in eight overs for the ninth wicket. Munawar led the way with some fine strokes, while Gledhill gave solid support before being run out for 11.
A breezy knock by Bridgland helped secure a second batting point, before he fell to a sharp one-handed catch with the score on 180. Munawar remained unbeaten, having faced 43 balls in making the highest score of the innings with 33.
Dulwich thus take four points from this match, and will be hoping for a better result next week when they visit Worcester Park.
Result: Dorking 219-7 (50) beat Dulwich 180 (47.2) by 39 runs.