All-round ace Baker inspires Wardens to home win
A SUPERB all-round display from Worcestershire’s Josh Baker fired Kenilworth Wardens to a 46-run home win over Halesowen.
The young all-rounder contributed a fluent half-century in support of Andy Leering’s 77 as the hosts reached 256. He then grabbed five top-order wickets as the visitors were bowled out for 210.
Home openers Jamie Harrison (24) and Henry Cullen (36) both got starts but it was Leering, batting higher than usual in the absence of the injured Harry Johnson, that went on to a meaningful contribution.
Wardens’ captain made 77 from 101 balls, adding 85 with fourthwicket partner Baker whose fluent 50-ball 58 contained eight fours and a six.
Masiullah Qazkhill (6-59) worked his way through the home side’s lower order during the closing stages of the innings but nonetheless Halesowen faced a challenging target.
And with Baker applying pressure with the ball, although seven of the visitors’ top eight reached 18 none were able to go beyond the 38 scored by Aussie opener Luke Tulacz.
After Baker took his sweater with the fine return of 5-64 from 17 overs, it was left to young paceman Freddie Fowler (4-51) to polish off the tail.
Wardens climb into fourth place following this win where they trail
surprise table-toppers Wolverhampton by 23 points.
Berkswell are a point and league position further back after former Warwickshire paceman Grant Thornton led a rearguard which rescued eight points from their losing draw against the league leaders.
Fine batting from Ramanjot Jaswal, Ben Horne and Zia Ul Haq Parwani who all passed 50 plus 49 from skipper Will Nield saw Wolves close their 55-over allocation with 279 for nine.
Nick James took three wickets for the hosts whose batting line-up then failed to convert good starts into the kind of scores which would build a successful run chase.
Openers Mo Ahmed (34) and Will Rhodes (37) added 74 and Chris Whittock made 23 but with Joe Stanley claiming 5-59 the hosts had subsided to 141 for seven before Thornton grafted his way to the 74-ball unbeaten 28 that secured them a draw at 194 for eight.