Portsmouth’s top order blown away
City team suffer second defeat as Andover strike early
Portsmouth’s top order were blown away by Andover as they slumped to a second successive Southern Premier League Division 1 defeat.
After losing their curtainraiser at Rowledge off the last ball, they were bowled out for 95 at St Helens and ended up losing by five wickets in one of only two second tier matches completed due to wet weather.
Put into bat, opener Jack Marston walked out to the middle having hit scores of 45 (v Liphook, friendly), 69 (v Havant, friendly) and 53 (v Rowledge, league).
But he was dismissed by Mike Adams for a duck, Alex Hammond (1) was bowled by Babu Veetil (3-28), and skipper Ben Duggan (13) was trapped leg before by Adams (3-21) as the hosts slipped to 19-3.
That was bad enough, but then Portsmouth collapsed to 21-5 with Hemanshu Hirani and Will Smitherman lasting just seven balls between them and failing to trouble the scorers.
Dan Wallis (13) and Henry Woolf (16) at least made double figures as the hosts lurched to 66-8.
There followed a 23-run stand for the ninth wicket - the highest of the innings - between No 9 Rueben McArdle (11 not out) and No 10 Andrew Marston, who top scored with 19.
Last man Harrison Webb recorded the fourth duck of the innings as Portsmouth’s innings ended off the last ball of the 30th over.
There was early success for Duggan’s men when Andover replied.
Glynn Treagus, once a Minor Counties Championship winner with Dorset and a prolific SPL run scorer for many years, was clean bowled by Hirani second ball.
Woolf (2-29) bagged two wickets to reduce Andover to 32-3, but any hopes of a stunning victory were dashed when Charlie Ayers (28) added 40 for the fourth wicket with keeper Matt Knight.
The latter ended unbeaten on 22 balls - off 77 deliveries - with Andover claiming a five-wicket victory in the 28th over.
Webb took 2-15 in three overs.
■ Lymington raised a few eyebrows by beating Burridge by 29 runs in the only SPL Premier match that survived the early morning rain.
They did so having been ask to bat in damp, blustery conditions, but defended 155 with relative comfort after Burridge lost wickets at regular intervals during the 40-over run chase.
Burridge were bowled out for 126, Ryan Scott catching the eye with bat and ball.
The fact the match took place at all was of immense credit to veteran groundsman Gerry Candy and his helpers – and Burridge skipper Hilio de Abreu must have thought their efforts might be rewarded when stand-in skipper Terry Crabb called wrongly and Lymington were inserted.
Crabb became the first of four victims for Dan Stancliffe (4-28), but by the time the Kiwi left-hander was bowled, Lymington had 38 on the board, Ben Rogers (32) punching six boundaries in his 22-ball knock.
With De Abreu (3-35) creating inroads, Lymington dropped to 118-6, but the tail wagged runs before Oli Southon (2-38) and Stancliffe finished things off. Impressive newball bowling by South Wilts raised James Wade (2-17) and Josh Proctor (2-26) had Burridge rocking at 21-3.
Matt Norris (31) steadied the ship, but tight eight-over spells by spin pair Dan Cox (1-15) and South African Ximus du Plooy (2-15) kept Burridge in check before Scott (3-29) produced a threewicket blast that reduced the hosts to 88-8, with Scott on a hat-trick at one point.
Azimunnor Chowdhury (16) and Southon (23) are renowned big hitters and threatened Lymington’s position before Luke Mortimore took a good catch off the bowling of Josh Proctor to ensure a 29-run win.
4 Four Portsmouth batsmen were out without scoring