Malden blitzed by pace as Ashtead saunter to victory

There is an old cricketing adage – “a short game is a good game.” And that was certainly the case for the Ashtead Stags, who were finished before tea in Round 12 of the 2022 Surrey Championship Premier League, in a 9-wicket victory over Malden Wanderers.

Tom Deighton, the Ashtead skipper, won the toss (that’s 8 from 12 now) and elected to bowl first – fielding a side rich with talent and ready to take the fight to the hosts from the very first delivery. And the 10 wickets began to fall almost immediately, with left-armer Sam Hunt seeing a jabbed ball fly straight to Conor Young with a very smart catch. 0-1.

Joining Hunt in the bowling attack was the returning Ben Sidwell, keen to repeat or even improve on his 4-wicket haul from the Weybridge match a fortnight earlier. And he was soon in the wickets as well. The pair continued to bowl with danger, accuracy and pace, and the hosts simply could not maintain the defence for long enough to score meaningful runs.

The Malden overseas batter, Zac Elkin, a former Ashtead player, was the critical wicket to get – and he would be next to go, Young snaring a similarly excellent catch off Hunt to remove him for just 10. Heads were dropping in the batting dressing room, and it showed on the field as Hunt and Sidwell each claimed another scalp. 37-5 and the hosts were reeling.

Just to compound their woes, the Stags then introduced spin into the attack, with Tom Homes’ left arm spin immediately causing problems. With returning wicketkeeper Paul Harrison taking both a sharp catch and an extremely swift stumping, the scoreboard now read 53-7 and almost all hope had faded. Lunch followed soon after to prolong the match a little further.

Yet Malden weren’t quite done yet, as skipper Richard Croney and young star Joe Lavender (recently bowling for Surrey 2s) made some quick runs off the spinners following the interval. It would take the return of Sidwell to break the deadlock, removing Croney LBW for 26 and Lavender bowled for 31. Homes would finish the job in the following over. 126 all out. Ben Sidwell’s figures read 18 overs, 10 maidens, 21 runs, 4 wickets. Tom Homes, meanwhile, had numbers of 15.5-8-27-3 and Sam Hunt had 3-28. A truly superb effort.

The chase, which had 68 overs to run, was going to depend largely on the start that Ragu Aravinthan and Ben Geddes made. And, characteristically, Ragu went on the offensive early whilst Ben was slightly more circumspect. Opening with spin was always going to be a risky move, and so it proved as the score raced along.

Losing Ragu for 33 was unfortunate, especially as both batters were making plenty of headway, but it did little to change the impending conclusion, as Geddes was joined by the overseas star Matty Breetzke. 36 more runs to add to his already imperious total, at faster than a run a ball, saw Ashtead home to a destructive 9 wicket win. Geddes, meanwhile, had added some firepower of his own and finished on 58 not out from just 56 balls.

That win leaves Ashtead in 7th on the league table, but the gap closes to the midfield and widens even further with losses or draws for all three sides ranked below them. Next week sees Sutton travel to Woodfield Lane for the final timed format match of the 2022 campaign. Sutton currently sit bottom of the table, and Ashtead were comprehensive 74 run winners when the two sides met in May.

A reminder that you can follow Ashtead CC’s 1st XI matches via our Twitter (@ashteadcc), live on our website (www.ashtead.play-cricket.com) or at our YouTube channel (Ashtead Cricket Club Live). We look forward to tomorrow and next week! Join us then.