Hard fought draw for Ashtead 3s at Guildford

The 3s travelled down to Guildford for the return match in the timed format and secured a winning draw over Guildford.

Having lost the toss Ashtead batted first and were soon under the cosh, having lost the wicket of opener Rob Wint (2) in the second over, run out looking for a third but beaten by an unexpected accurate throw and then skipper Tom Culhane fell LBW for 13. Following some good blows by Richard Nichols (28) at 66-5 Ashtead found a good partnership from Jake Martin (47) and Will Culhane (22) and then Jake and Marcus Caprano-Wint (19) to start to lift the score to something defendable, and then when the last wicket fell leaving Christian Burgess not out on 13 Ashtead had reached a respectable 185 but leaving Guildford 56 overs to chase the target.

As has been the case for most of the season, Ashtead bowled really well and Christian (2-28) had the opener caught behind in the 3rd over, wickets fell in between some stubborn partnerships and the score reached 94-5. Spin proved very difficult to play with Marcus (3-22) being incredibly tight and the off-spin of Will (2-36) causing trouble. Connor Caprano-Wint (0-25) was incredibly unlucky as his leg-spin totally bamboozled the Guildford batters (and umpires) as two loud appeals for LBW were turned down.

Jake returned to the attack and bowled 7 overs for no runs and picked up the valuable 7th wicket with the score on 142, with very few overs left Guildford were up against it. With more tight bowling and several near misses, Marcus was brought back and captured his 3rd wicket and the teams 8th, but the 9th wicket held firm under a final push and Guildford finished 25 runs short on 160-8.

A battling winning draw that is credit to the Ashtead middle order batting and bowling who gave a credible performance. We host Valley End next weekend at Box Hill and look to avenge the loss earlier in the season at their ground.