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With Cardiff
Gymkhana riding high on top of both the First XI and Second XI South
Wales Conference leagues, this was always going to be a challenging pair
of fixtures for Llantwit Fardre’s teams.
So it proved, as Llantwit’s First XI went down by 7 wickets and
its Second XI by 70 runs. While
the First team remains in mid-table safety though, this latest defeat
sees the Second team drop to the bottom of its Division 1, with only 5
matches remaining in August in which to salvage its status.
At
Cardiff
University’s Llanrumney ground, Llantwit Fardre First XI batted and scored a
mediocre 165-9 (Geraint Lewis 42, Mike Cannon 31).
While this was below average compared with recent displays, it
reflected the tight and incisive bowling attack that the League leaders
had on display, with wickets shared fairly evenly amongst the bowlers.
When batting, Cardiff Gymkhana reached their target without many
problems, and top scorers were I Jaura 44, P Rafiq 43 and P Jadhav 38*
in their total of 166-3.
At
Central Park
, Gymkhana Second XI won the toss and unsurprisingly elected to bat on a
hot afternoon. Though never
totally dominant, their top order batsmen were fluent and maintained a
healthy scoring rate, with Vinoe (78) and Ijaz (57) the biggest
contributors in a total of 234-9. Steve
Smith (4-50) and Scott Williams (3-50) did well as a number of late
wickets fell, but most notable was Rob Blunt’s wicket-keeping
performance, with four stumpings and a catch.
A pacy Gymkhana opening attack inflicted early damage that was
never really repaired, though Rob Blunt (38) again did well.
Only an unbeaten last wicket stand of 51 between Scott Williams
(20*) and skipper Alan Hughes (20*) held up the inevitable, and bagged a
handful of league points en route to a Llantwit total of 164-9.
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