Bank welcomed neighbours Feckenham for the second game of the 2020 season.
With rain a predominant feature in the weather forecast, both sides were hoping to avoid defeat to the conditions first and foremost.
Bank skipper Pete Alexander again won the toss and, with the gloomy forecast, again decided to let the Bank bowlers off the leash in the first innings. Dan Thomas and Tom Harris opened up the bowling on what looked a decent pitch.
Bank has to wait until the second over of the match to take the first wicket this week, with Harris bowling the dangerous Idrees for 0. There was plenty of swing and a bit of seam movement for the bowlers to work with and it was a matter of time until Harris had Grubb trapped lbw to leave Feckenham 21-2.
Luke Jackson offered some resillience for the batting side and in partnership with Maan, moved the score past 50. Josh Baker and Joel Haslam replaced the opening bowlers and Baker soon proved too hot to handle for the visitors, removing Jackson, Maan, Chaudhry and Brocklehurt in a devastating spell of 8 overs, conceding just 14 runs.
On just his second 1st XI appearance, James Boycott again showed his quality with two key middle order wickets, removing former Banker Flynn Duggan and opposing captain Jamie Reddish with some very skilful bowling.
The Feckenham charge, having struggled to really get started, stalled drastically. Having been 84 for 5 at one stage, the visitors only managed to add another 12 runs to their tally before being dismissed with Joel Haslam making light work of the Feckenham lower order picking up a couple of wickets to take his season tally to 5.
Feckenham were all out for 96 inside 28 overs with wickets for Baker 4, Haslam 2, Boycott 2 & Harris 2.
The rain had started to fall toward the end of the innings and with the covers going on at the tea interval, it was then a waiting game for the rain to completely stop before play could resume.
After a lengthy delay, play was able to resume just after 5 o’clock with Bank’s overs reduced to 30. This meant a reduced DLS target of 81 for victory.
Tom Pedley and Rob West opened the batting for The Bank against former Redditch opening bowler Noman Chaudhry and Yesir Mehmood. As ever, Bank looked to start positively. Pedley was the aggressor and raced the score to 20 before his partner West was bowled by a good delivery from Chaudhry.
Tom Underhill was next in for The Bank but it was Pedley that continued to be the aggressor, reaching his half century with the team score at 66. Sadly, he fell immediately after clipping a catch off the bowling of Maan to cover.
There was a brief panic when Feckenham bagged themselves another couple of quick wickets with Baker and Sam Thomas falling to some good bowling from Feckenham’s new signing from Evesham Maan and Nasir Mehmood.
Underhill, not in his usual fluent mood, was joined by James Pyatt and began to find his feet on what was now a slightly tricky surface and ensured there was no more drama planting a maximum over Jill Lane to finish a comprehensive Bank win by 6 wickets.
Bank, with 2 wins out of 2, travel to the picturesque ground of Belbroughton next week who are yet to get their first win of the campaign.
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