Victory keeps Dulwich on top

2:28pm Tuesday 20th May 2008

A captain's knock by Mark Kelly and another four-wicket haul by Zoheb Sharif saw Dulwich to a five-wicket win in their Surrey Championship Premier Division clash at Spencer on Saturday, writes Andrew Mills.

Dulwich put their opponents into bat and struck in the first over, with Kervin Marc having Andy Marson caught by Adam McDonogh for one.

Tom Askew was joined by Lancashire batsman Adrian Shankar and together they took the score to 58 in the 13th over before Askew was brilliantly caught by Ed Matten off Marc for 21.

South African overseas player Hancke von Rauenstein was caught behind by Tom Howe off Mark Kelly for a duck and scoring became much more difficult against accurate spells by Raza Dar, conceding only 11 off 6 overs, and Adam McDonogh. McDonogh took 1-28 off 10 overs and was unlucky to only take one wicket as the opposition constantly played and missed. Dominic Tuohey had Shankar caught by McDonogh for 51 and Pierre Jason was caught behind off McDonogh for 27.

Leg spinner Sharif then took the next four wickets to finish with 4-21 off 7 overs. Dar picked up the last wicket as Spencer declined from 131-5 to 163 all out. In 2 matches Sharif has now taken eight wickets at an average of 5.2.

A brief rain break meant that Dulwich's innings was reduced to 48 overs with a revised target of 161.

Disaster struck in the first over as Richard Farrow was run out without facing a ball.

Sharif and Dar added 28 for the second wicket, but both fell in the space of eight balls to leave Dulwich on 36-3.

Skipper Kelly and Steve Hale added 46 for the fourth wicket, before Hale fell to leg spinner Patrick Turk for 21.

Adam McDonogh fell shortly afterwards to slow left armer Paul Byrne without scoring as the two spinners bowled 18 overs for only 46 runs.

At 83-5, Kelly was joined by Tuohey and at first they moved the score along in singles until the spinners had finished their spells. The return of Spencer's pace attack brought an increase in the scoring rate and the pair added 79 in 20.3 overs to see Dulwich to victory by five wickets and picking up a bonus point in the process.

Kelly finished on 73 not out off 111 balls and Tuohey 31 not out off 63.

Dulwich thus remain top of the table and go into next Saturday's home clash with Wimbledon full of confidence.

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