Lymington I learn some lessons at the Hampshire Academy

Lymington I slipped to defeat in their first Southern Premier League game of the season against a youthful Hampshire Academy side at the Utilita Bowl in a limited overs match. In a tight game Lymington batters made the cardinal sin of not using up all the 50 overs following a batting collapse with the last seven only contributing 28 runs. Lymington though were still short of match practice given the damp start to the season.

Losing the toss Lymington I was put into bat on a wicket that offered some help to the bowlers. The innings got off to a great start as captain Ben Rogers (34) and Monam Abbas put on 80 runs for the first wicket before Ben was bowled by Eddie Jack (1-26). Monam was in fine form with his knock of 71 that included 10 fours. The side looked comfortable and moved on to 125-1 with Ryan Scott on 15 before the batting collapse started as Leevon Chandhoke (3-28) got into his stride. Kamran Dhariwal (29) held the middle order together for a while but wickets tumbled at the other end. Spinner Zack Basey (4-15) was instrumental in getting late order wickets not helped by poor shot selection leaving Josh Royan (12 not out) high and dry with still 8.3 overs remaining.

Hampshire Academy in reply also got off to a good start as Sam Ashman (41) and Finn Gordon (57) put on 86 for the first wicket before Asad Abbas (2-31) in an excellent spell removed both. This brought in Joseph Eckland, now in Hampshire’s first team squad, who held the rest of the innings together with a disciplined knock of 35. He was helped by Teddy Golding (32) as the pair put on 52 runs for the sixth wicket. At least Lymington overseas player Liam Thompson (2-27) got some late wickets including Eckland but it was not enough as the Academy got home by three wickets with 11 balls to spare. The bowling was generally tight but fielding needs to be improved. Gareth Berg (2-48) was the other wicket taker while Ryan Scott was responsible for the run out of Eddie Jack.

This coming Saturday Lymington have a local derby against rivals Bashley at the Sports Ground in the first home game of the season with a 12.30 start.