SOUTH Wilts Cricket Club showed tremendous fighting spirit on the opening day of the campaign to storm back from being removed for just 139 against Bashley (Rydal) to win by a comfortable 65 runs.

New skipper James Hayward and recent addition Simon Branston were instrumental in removing the visitors for a mere 74 as the Salisbury club banked 18 points from their first Southern Electric Premier League Division One match of the summer.

The week's rain had left the wicket at Wilton Road a little damp and so a low-scoring encounter could have been predicted, but certainly not as low as it turned out.

Hayward lost the toss and Bashley took the unsurprising decision to bowl first.

However, the dominance of ball over bat was not in evidence early on as Tom Morton and Paul Draper got South Wilts off to a steady start.

Morton looked in particularly good form, hitting a succession of boundaries.

But at 45-0 when Draper, 13, was trapped lbw by Andy Neal, the tide began to turn.

Morton followed to the same bowler 13 runs later and a position of strength had become precarious.

As the slower bowlers came on, the run-rate began to stagnate and the hosts' batsmen did not adapt well to the conditions.

The shots they played suggested that they were looking at a score in excess of 200 when, in fact, they should have been aiming for 175 plus.

Bashley leg-spinner Max Waller, 10-4-16-2, was the main reason for the change in tempo.

The Somerset-contracted youngster bowled with great control and picked up the wickets of Abel and Hibberd to leave South Wilts at 84-4.

From that point on, only skipper Hayward looked in any sort of control.

When he fell, caught and bowled by veteran Neil Taylor, shortly after the same bowler had dismissed former captain Rob Wade, South Wilts were in deep trouble at 117-6.

Andy Hayward and Rob Pittman batted sensibly to ease the score to 135-6, but when Pittman holed out to give Taylor, 3-21, his third victim, the innings subsided to 139 all out as former Wiltshire seamer Kevin Nash polished off the tail.

Hayward's first game in charge had left him with a worried frown at the tea interval, but he confidently pointed out to his players that anything Bashley could do, South Wilts could certainly do too.

Accurate bowling and good fielding would make runs hard to come by and heap pressure on the Bash-ley batsmen, but as former Hampshire batsman Andy Sexton and Neil Thurgood eased the score to 23, there was little to suggest what was to come.

James Hibberd and Branston had gone repeatedly past the outside edge before Branston finally bowled Thurgood, 17.

A couple of overs later and the whole complexion of the game changed.

Branston, charging in from the Bemerton end, buoyed by his first Southern League wicket, took three wickets in an over.

Firstly the highly rated Chris Jones shouldered arms.

Next ball, the timbers were again displaced as Branston greeted Bashley's overseas player Dan Friedman with a perfect in-swinging leg stump yorker.

Neal kept out the hat-trick ball but he too was on his way next delivery (lbw) as he was beaten for pace.

The score of 23-0 had suddenly become 29-4 and the home side were in control.

With the absence of the injured Adie Holewell, South Wilts' second string bowling did not appear as strong and any worries that Bran-ston's early blasts would not be backed up seemed well-founded as Sexton and Waller took the score to 62-4.

Then the bowlers settled into their rhythm, the runs dried up and the pressure finally told.

Sexton, 33, drove loosely at Wade and Andy Hayward took a good catch at mid-off.

In the very next over, Waller smashed a rare loose James Hayward delivery high to the mid-wicket boundary only for Pittman to race from deep square leg to take a spectacular diving catch, much to the delight of his teammates.

Two tight overs later, and Hayward completely deceived Paul Cass with a quicker ball to trap him lbw and 62-4 had become 62-7.

The end was nigh and South Wilts were in no mood to let Bashley off the hook.

Hayward had West smartly stumped by Morton, and after Wade had trapped Nash lbw, it was left to the skipper to complete the game as he had Matt King caught by Andy Hayward.

South Wilts had taken just over 35 overs to rout Bashley for a mere 74 and complete a 65-run win.

Hayward finished with 4-9 off his 8.4 overs, Wade, a nagging 2-11 off eight overs, but it was Branston who took the chief plaudits with 4-13 off ten.

South Wilts can now look forward to Saturday's trip to Totton & Eling in optimistic mood.

Hayward summed up his side's feelings: "We turned it around superbly.

"There was nothing wrong with the wicket, it was just a bit slow because of the rain.

"Both sides batted poorly but our bowling simply won the day."

1:22pm Wednesday 7th May 2008

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