Gowerton Year 8’s have started their cricket season in a triumphant manner beating a resolute Bryntawe side on Wednesday afternoon.
Having lost the toss, Gowerton were forced to field first. Our opening bowlers (Lewis Roberts 0-12 and Joe Barrett 0-2) put the home side under early pressure but without breaking the opening partnership.
It was one of the Year 7 call ups who was to take the early wicket – a ripper of a delivery by Sanjay Pradepan (1-7) was edged behind and was excellently caught by skipper Joe Richards. This was followed by Joe Riodan (1-7) clean bowling the remaining opening batsman to give Gowerton the ascendancy.
At the halfway point in the innings, Bryntawe had managed to get to 48-2 and looked to be on for a highly competitive score. That was until Nino Romanello took what could end up being the catch of the season, even at this early stage, diving exceptionally to his right off the bowling of Jamie Terry (1-5).
That wicket put Gowerton back on the front foot, with a couple of smart overs from Joshua Westood (0-16) and Callum Smith 0-18) to end the innings. Bryntawe ended up with 85-3 from their 16 overs – a stellar bowling performance by the Gowertonians but left with a sizeable target to chase down.
With Gowerton needing over 5 an over to win, attacking batting was the order of the day. Joe Richards and Arthur John Lake opened the batting excellently – the opening partnership of 26 put early pressure on Bryntawe until Arthur John was clean bowled by a peach of a delivery.
Rebekah Owen-Gambold was the new batsman in. The running between the wickets was phenomenal from the away side, putting the fielders under pressure and forcing errors. Rebekah was eventually caught out but not before building a partnership of a further 24 which left Gowerton on 50-2 at the half way stage – well ahead of the required run rate.
All the while Joe Richards was building a captiains performance with the bat with some well struck cricket shots, particularly on the leg side. He was eventually run out though, not before hitting 24 runs of his own and ended the game Gowertons leading scorer.
With the skippers departure, the run rate slowed and the pressure grew on the away side. Once into stride however, new batsmen Joe Barrett and Jake Riodan pushed the away side to touching distance of victory before Riodan was trapped plumb LBW which left Gowerton needing 12 to win from 16 balls.
Lewis Roberts was the one to steer Gowerton to victory with a tremendous sweep to deep square leg. Roberts’ and Barratt’s unbeaten innings of 8 and 6 respectively got Gowerton over the line with 7 balls remaining.
This was a stellar performance by the Gowertonians both in the field and with the pads. A win starts the season off on a high but is no doubt testament to the commitment and enthusiasm of the squad in training.
Our next fixture will be Birchgrove on Wednesday 16th June, this time at Gowerton C.C.
Well played lads and lass. Great report Mr Hughes.