Good showing against league leaders despite the absence of senior players

Sat. 14th May. West of England Wiltshire Division. Westbury 184/ all out – Royal Wootton Bassett 276/7

WESTBURY and District Cricket Club entertained the league leaders in the latest West of England Wiltshire Division match. 

Westbury made three changes with Keilo Shallow, Sandeep Singh (1st XI league debut) and 13-year-old Rory White (also on his 1st XI league debut) coming in for the injured Chris Thompson, James Dark and Richard Oakley. 

Royal Wootton Bassett called correct at the toss and decided to bat first on a very hot day. They opened the batting with Jack Twine and the returning Jonathan Clarke and made a steady start. But when the total reached 42 Westbury struck for the first time when Clarke was caught very well by Rory White off the bowling of the Westbury captain Daniel Gill for 16.   

Akash Sharma, the Bassett captain then arrived at the wicket and immediately made his intentions very clear by quick running between the wickets. When the total reached 108, Sharma was caught by James Clack off the bowling of Henry White for a fine 34, shortly after with the total reaching 110 Jack Twine was caught behind by Shallow, also off the bowling of Henry White.   

Sam Lawro and Charanveer Chahal then took the total to 136 when Sam Lawro was caught behind by Shallow off the bowling of Daniel Gill for 15; shortly afterwards Charanveer Chahal was brilliantly run out by James Clack for 15 with the total at 154. There was a fine partnership of 83 between Tenda Chiradza (39) and Anis Ali (51*) which took the total to 238 when Chiradza was caught brilliantly one handed by Shallow for his third catch of the innings.   

At the end of their allotted 50 overs Royal Wootton Bassett made a very big score of 276 for the loss of seven wickets. Henry White had the best figures of (2-41 off 7 overs) ably supported by the Westbury captain Daniel Gill (2-51 off 10 overs). 

When Westbury batted, they made a bad start by losing two wickets for five runs with Clack (1) and Gill (2) the batsman dismissed. Dylan Hulett, the Westbury overseas player then came to the wicket to join Shallow. With solid support, Hulett then took the attack to the opposition bowlers, but when the total reached 98, Wootton Bassett struck for the third time when Shallow was out for 17 run out by the Bassett captain Akash Sharma.  

With the score at 109 Clark Evans was bowled by Sharma for three. Then when the score reached 132 the match turned massively in the opposition’s favour when Hulett was brilliantly run out by Jack Paish for a brilliant 89 in 118 minutes off 93 balls. After his dismissal the innings subsided to 184 all out in the 48th over.  All the Royal Wootton Bassett bowlers bowled well. 

Despite this defeat lots of positives were made with the new players fielding well; this all bodes well for the future. As Beckington Cricket Club have pulled out of the league Westbury have a free week off, but the second team will be playing against Wanborough at home. 

Westbury team: Daniel Gill (cpt). James Clack. Keillo Shallow.Dylan Hulett. Clark Evans. Steve Clare. Luke Dilena. Sandeep Singh. Henry White. Faizal Faizey. Rory White. 

Scores: Royal Wootton Bassett:  276 -7 in 50 overs. Anis Ali 51*, J Twine 47, Henry White 2-41.  Daniel Gill 2-51. 

Westbury: 184 all out. D. Hulett 89, Marsh-Ballard 2-15, Akash Sharma 2-26.