Dulwich win promotion to premier division

BEDDINGTON 273-8 (49.2)
beat
DULWICH 271 (47.2)
by 2 wickets

Dulwich cricket club go into their final match of the season on Saturday already sure of promotion to the premier division of the AJ Fordham Surrey championship and with the possibility of topping the table. John Lewis reports on the match that clinched promotion

Dulwich travelled to Beddington and gained the two bonus points needed to secure their promotion from Division 1 of the AJ Sports Surrey Championship. The two sides then played out a fluctuating thriller which ended in a two-wicket victory for Beddington in the final over.

Dulwich were put in to bat, but there was no early breakthrough as James Schofield and Harrison Perry put on 61 in 11.1 overs for the first wicket. Schofield’s dismissal, for 25 off 34 balls, was quickly followed by that of Chris Purshouse.

Skipper Ollie Steele then joined Perry in a stand of 49 for the third wicket before Perry fell for 59, off 66 balls. This was his second 50 of the season, with the first one also having come against these opponents.

Apoorv Wankhade then joined Steele in a partnership which saw Dulwich pass their promotion target of 175 (ironically achieved via five wides) and put on 124 for the fourth wicket in 17 overs. 

But Steele’s dismissal for 56, off 79 balls, with the score on 235 in the 40^th over, sparked a collapse in which the last seven wickets went down in eight overs for 36 runs.

Wankhade was the seventh wicket to fall, having taken his score to 84, off just 65 balls. This was his tenth innings of 50 or more this season, and lifted his aggregate in his final game to 982 runs at an average of 70.14.

Dulwich were all out for 271 with 2.4 overs of the innings unused, thereby leaving their opponents with a much more attainable target than had seemed likely. 

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Jacob Emler, playing only his third match of the season, opened the bowling and took the first wicket with his fourth legitimate ball.

This brought in Aamir Raza, who took full advantage of the powerplay fielding restrictions to unleash an extraordinary assault in which he raced to 50 off just 23 balls. He had reached 64 off 28, out of a stand of 78 in 8.2 overs for the second wicket, when he fell to Felix Watson-Smyth, who had opened from the other end and had largely escaped the carnage.

Tight spells by Kaif Ramzan, who bowled well without any luck, and Ahmed Khan, who took two wickets in successive overs to make it 143-4, pegged them back. But Raza had put his side so far ahead of the asking rate that they were able to proceed steadily without taking many risks. 

Watson-Smyth picked up the fifth wicket with the score on 181 in the 34^th over. Emler, who had gone for 38 off three overs under Raza’s onslaught, came back to bowl another six overs in which he took two for 33. He took the sixth wicket with the score on 212 after 40.1 overs, but Alfie Gardner and Ryan Cummins then put on 50 for the seventh wicket. Watson-Smyth had Gardner lbw for 58, off 73 balls, with the score on 262 off the last ball of the 48^th over. Emler took his third wicket off the last ball of the 49^th to make it 269-8, but a Cummins boundary off the second ball of the last over saw Beddington home. Watson-Smyth finished with 3-43 off ten overs, Emler had 3-71 off nine, and Khan 2-36 off ten.

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Dulwich are thus guaranteed to finish in second place, and still have an outside chance of overhauling Spencer should they slip up next week against Valley End.

Dulwich’s own last game is at home to Old Hamptonians, who are currently seventh but would be relegated if they lose and the two teams immediately below them both win.