WESTBURY entertained Purton in the latest West of England League Wiltshire Division 2015 season, hoping to put last week’s defeat against Devizes behind them.
Westbury made two changes from last week’s defeat with Harjot Singh (on his first team debut) and Aiden Wicks coming in for Dan House and Richard Oakley.
Winning the toss, Westbury decided to put Purton into bat on one of the best wickets of the season.
Purton made a cautious start against the Westbury opening bowlers Senneck and Carroll and when the total reached 41, Westbury struck dismissing Woolford for 15. Gardner was then joined by Tom Bowler and they took the total to 79 when Gardner was run out by a fine throw by Richard Mills, with the batsman just short of the crease. On his dismissal Bowler was then joined at the crease by Pinchin and they started to score very quickly. When the total reached 137, Bowler was dismissed for a fine 55 off 65 balls. Shortly afterwards, Pinchin was also dismissed for 43. Ramani (43) and Iyengar (28) took the total to 237 for 6 off their allocated 50 overs.
When Westbury batted they made a reasonable start by Gill and MacDonald, and when the total reached 27 Purton struck when Gill (19) was dismissed; shortly afterwards Gibbons (6) was also dismissed. Senneck was then joined by Mills and they took the total to 119 when Mills (11) was dismissed caught. It was at this time the Purton bowlers got on top and it was only Senneck (79) who was able to get on top of their opponents’ bowling attack. Westbury struggled and the total fell from 119 for 3 to 174 all out in the 46th over.
Hopefully next week’s game against Calne will see the Westbury batsman show what they are really capable of.
Report by Christopher Lack
