Berkshire Cricket League Division 2: Wokingham 6th XI (132-5) beat Knowl Hill (131 all out)
Knowl Hill elected to bat first having won the toss. Knowl’s opening pair of Ian Millson and James Stoker scored a combined total of 32 runs before Wokingham made the first breakthrough of the match, dismissing Millson on eight as he was run out by Prasad Kulkarni.
The opening pair were both gone after Mahesh Bhandary bowled out Stoker on 23 with Knowl on 35-2.
Knowl passed the half century mark but shortly after the third wicket was taken, with Simon Herrington catching out Anand Subramaniasamy from the bowling of Shiv Munniyappa.
Wokingham’s strong bowling performance intensified as they took three quick wickets, with Prabhu Selvaraj picking up two and Munniyappa adding another, to put Knowl in a difficult position on 80-6.
It didn’t take long for Wokingham to dismiss the Knowl order even further as two more wickets came with the hosts just short of reaching the century mark as a team, as the Oaks reduced them to 90-8.
Knowl batted resiliently and efficiently to boost the total at the end of their innings as captain Adam Brookman hit a valuable innings of 24 from 19 balls. The final wicket fell with Chinmay Kulkarni claiming his first dismissal of the innings as Knowl Hill finished with a disappointing total of 131.
Wokingham started their chase well with Steve Smith and Simon Herrington opening the batting for the Oaks. They put on 39 runs as a pair before Knowl got their first wicket to remove Wokingham’s captain Herrington on 25.
Smith followed shortly after his captain as Ian Millson took his second catch of the day off the bowling of James Stoker. Knowl continued their fine bowling spell and took another wicket almost immediately as Chinmay Kulkarni fell for just one run, with Wokingham starting to look nervous on 46-3.
But the Oaks calmed their nerves and batted strongly to surpass the century mark before the next wicket fell. Prasad Kulkarni was next to go having knocked a fine innings of 40 runs before he was caught and bowled by John Randall with Wokingham on 102-4.
Munniyappa (18) was caught lbw as Randall gained his second wicket of the day, but victory was on the horizon for Wokingham with just 18 runs needed to secure the win with five wickets still left.
Ranjeet Sidhu and Prabhu Selvaraj both hit 11 runs each as they batted Wokingham to victory, sealing the win in just 31.2 overs.
Knowl Hill batting: Millson 8, Stoker 23, Subramaniasamy 6, Stott 29, Francis 4, Plank 1, Bavington 1, A Brookman 24, Hussain 0, J Brookman 2no, Randall 9.
Wokingham bowling: Bhandary 1-37, Hasan 0-31, Munniyappa 4-4, Selvaraj 2-28, Sidhu 1-16, C Kulkarni 1-4, P Kulkarni 0-9.
Wokingham batting: Smith 17, Herrington 25, P Kulkarni 40, C Kulkarni 1, Munniyappa 18, Sidhu 11, Selvaraj 11, Pawar dnb, Bhandary dnb, Cary dnb, Hasan dnb.
Knowl Hill bowling: A Brookman 0-29, Francis 1-23, Subramaniasamy 1-16, Stoker 1-16, Stott 0-21, Randall 2-23.
