Lymington were too good for bottom of the table Havant with a comfortable 5-wicket victory as returning Gareth Berg had a 5-wicket haul followed up by another masterful batting performance from Monam Abbas. Both sides lost early wickets on a dry Indian looking wicket but then the batters took over.

Lymington might have lost the toss for the seventh time this season but this time they were not asked to bat. In no time Havant had half their side back in the pavilion with only 34 runs on the board in just 10 overs. Gareth Berg (5-52) was fresh back from his success with the Italian cricket team in the ICC T20 Europe qualifiers. Despite being hit on the side of the head in a pre-match warm-up it did not prevent him taking four of the first five wickets. He was helped by fellow opener Liam Thompson (1-43). Havant were then let off the hook as Richard Hindley (84 not out) batting sensibly with captain Peter Hopson (37) put on 93 for the sixth wicket. But Assad Abbas (4-18 in 11 overs) took advantage of the spinner’s wicket removing Hopson and then polished off the Havant tail. Seven of the batsmen were out to catches with Jovan Dhariwal taking two.

A score of 193 never seemed enough despite the helpful wicket yet Lymington got off to an even worse start with three batters out and only 10 runs on the board. Left arm spinner Chris Morgan (3-61) soon had both openers out with Jovan Dhariwal (2) controversially out lbw and Ben Rogers (6) caught and bowled. Then Gareth Berg (2) promoting himself to number three failed lasting just 10 balls. This though brought Monam Abbas (83 not out) and Kamran Dhariwal (53) together who put on 104 for the fourth wicket in just 24 overs soon getting on top of the Havant bowlers. Abbas was then joined by wicketkeeper/batsman Conor Moors (28) putting on 49 for the fifth wicket and then Josh Royan (9 not out) to see Lymington home by 5 wickets with as many as 15 overs to spare. Abbas, unbeaten for the second consecutive week, improved his SPL Premier Division batting average to 64.71 the highest in the division while scoring 453 runs, 138 more than the second highest batter.

Lymington now finds itself in the top half of the table following successive wins and this coming Saturday it has a clash at home, with an 11am start, to the Hampshire Academy who lie third.