T20 magic back in town as Ashtead win again

The road to Ashford begins. Ashtead ran out 31 run winners at home to Old Whitgiftians in Round 2 of the 2017 Surrey Championship Twenty20, the Edwards Cup.

Old Whitgiftians won the toss, elected to field, and immediately went ahead of the game, with Michael Sanderson departing the crease without scoring. However, from there the game came slowly back to the hosts with some steady building from Guy Harper and returnee Chris Douglas. The 6 over PowerPlay passed without further incident, leaving Ashtead 35-1.

Despite the loss of Harper for 19 in the 9th over, and then Douglas for 37 in the 12th, the hosts continued to accumulate runs in a steady manner, with a few big shots around the ground. Enter Lalit Bose and Stewart Cameron. The big shots became bigger, and more frequent, as the hapless bowlers could find no answer.

Despite losing both Cameron and Bose in the final three overs, the damage had been done, and Ashtead finished on 168-5 off their 20 overs. A strong score, to be sure, but work was still needed to finish the job.

The wickets started to tumble early, with a pair of strikes in consecutive balls for Matt Friedlander to leave the visitors at 4-2. Some rebuilding work was carried out, and by the end of the PowerPlay, Old Whitgiftians had recovered to 37-3.

Throughout the middle overs, the visitors kept pace with what the hosts had done – but with wickets also falling regularly. All the bowlers were in the wickets, but it was the introduction of the spinners that sealed the deal.

A late order collapse saw the visitors fall away from the challenge, and when the 20 overs were up, the visitors were 37 runs short of their target, at 131-9.

The next round of the competition, Round 3, sees Ashtead host Beddington at Woodfield Lane. Last year’s rain-affected fixture saw Ashtead run out easy victors. Hopefully, the same result (minus the rain) can be seen again. Join us then.