Bank hosted Pershore in a table topping clash on Saturday on a sweltering day at the Bank Bowl. Bank skipper Pete Alexander won the toss and elected to make first use of the facilities and had a bat.
Openers Tom Pedley and Rob West, having won the previous game in fine fashion the week before, looked to get Bank off to a positive start. Things were going well with both batsmen looking comfortable, until a hastily scampered attempt at a single resulted in the run out of Pedley.
West, now joined by Tom Underhill, got a couple of boundaries away to take the home sides score to 50. Young opening bowler Gurr then got the prize scalp of Underhill, trapped leg before wicket for 1. Youngster Josh Baker strode out to the crease at 4 looking to rebuild with West.
The scoring rate continued steadily, with West finding the boundary fairly frequently. Baker, started solidly in support, until he unleashed an almighty blow into the car park for 6 off the off spin of Charlie Cross. This was the start of a fine knock from Baker as he continued to find the boundary frequently crashing 3 fours and 4 maximums in a splendid knock of 43, his highest score since retiring on 25 against Avoncroft U11's in 2014. West had departed himself by this point for a well played 71 at over a run a ball.
At the half way point Bank were looking set for a score of around 250. However some good slow bowling from Pershore put the brakes on the Bank charge and there was a stuttering second half to the innings. Sam Thomas and Connor Adams were the last meaningful contributors to the Bank innings with 34 and 18 respectively, but the final 5 batsmen mustered just 7 runs between them to leave the Bank all out for 205.
Although disappointed with the total, Bank were pretty happy that they had a defendable total. A peculiar first over saw Pershore's Liam Ridings clean bowled twice from two free hits from Dan Thomas. Ridings then quickly set about dominating the Bank attack during the powerplay. With the boundary being found frequently, Bank turned to the spin duo of Baker and Underhill. Underhill immediately struck with his second wicket of the season, picking up the wicket of Thompson. This brought Pershore skipper Chris Ridings to the crease to join his brother.
Liam continued to attack and played some unique shots during his quickfire 69, while Chris was more reserved in his play. The pair managed to break the back of the run chase before departing, with Baker removing Liam and Tom Harris claiming the wicket of Chris. Bank were
briefly putting a charge together to get back in the game but ultimately it was too little too late despite claiming another wicket when Dan Thomas removed Miles.
Pershore ended comfortable winners by 6 wickets and move 16 points clear of Bank at the top of the table.
Next week we host Chaddesley Corbett who sit 1 point below us in the table.
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