South East Wales Cricket League Division Three - Dinas Powys First XI (240-4) beat Monmouth First XI (239-7) by six wickets

MONMOUTH Cricket Club crashed to a second defeat in consecutive weeks on Saturday, as mid table Dinas Powys put a major dent in their promotion aspirations.

On a warm day Monmouth won the toss and decided to bat first on rock hard and bone dry wicket at the Sports Ground. Despite the early loss of opener Matt Jones (2) playing on, Dave Croudace (44) and Josh Grey (84) took the score to 85 before Croudace was caught at mid-off.

At drinks Monmouth looked well poised to post a competitive score with stroke players Adam Roberts (50) and Grey looking comfortable as the score moved on to 113-2 after 23 overs.

However, the introduction of spinner Syed Risvi (4-40) saw both Grey and Roberts fall in quick succession as Monmouth lost momentum in the innings, and despite a quick-fire 14 from all rounders Martin Newell and 12 from Alim Hansraj the feeling was the 239-7 posted off the allotted 45 overs was 30 or so below par.

For the visitors there were wickets for skipper Lewis Clarke (1-29), Alex Vowles (1-35) and Dani Zaman (1-60). In reply Monmouth made the best possible start with Hansraj (1-22) removing opener Todd for three thanks to a smart catch by Adam Roberts at gully.

This brought to the crease Dinas danger-man Syed Risvi (45) and he and opener Matt Todd-Bennet (136 not out) batted superbly in a 111 run partnership that set the game up for Dinas.

However, Monmouth fought back into the game through spinners Ben Davies (2-49), Adam Roberts (1-23) and the luckless Sam Swingwood (0-49) as Dinas slipped to 179-4 at the 37 over mark to leave the game evenly poised. However, Todd-Bennett had other ideas. Despite surviving what appeared a clear stumping off the bowling of Sam Swingwood when on 30, he went on to make his highest league score of the season and his maiden league 100 as Monmouth ran out of ideas in the field and heads began to drop.

In the end, Dinas ran out comfortable winners with 2.3 overs to go and left Monmouth’s promotion aspirations in serious doubts as they slipped to fourth in the league.

Despite that, Monmouth must now pick themselves up quickly and dust themselves off as they host a much improved Vale CC side at the MCG next week, knowing that only three wins from their last three games will suffice if they are to grab one of the top two promotion slots come the end of the season. The match is a 12.30pm start and all supporters are most welcome.