BARRY Wanderers took on St Fagans Thirds on Saturday in Division 8 of the South East Wales Cricket League.

Wanderers skipper George Allen won the toss and put St Fagans into bat on a wicket offering plenty of carry for opening bowlers Luke Grant and Venkat Siddu.

Tight bowling restricted the scoring opportunities for St Fagans and the score crept along steadily to 43 in the 16th over.

Ram Guni removed Burrows for 12 with an excellent catch from Chand Thimmanacheru at mid wicket in the 17th over but from this point onwards, the Wanderers bowling and fielding became inconsistent.

The extras column helped push the scoring rate up and there were missed opportunities for wickets via dropped catches.

Pacey Tim Bowker dismissed Pugh for an excellent 44 aided by a fine catch by Venkat.

Bowker would himself take a magnificent catch at slip off Andy Fenton, dismissing Brown for 35.

Grant was rewarded for his perseverance with the wicket of Nicholls (38) in his second spell, caught superbly by Pete Coleman in the covers.

Another well taken catch by Neil Blundell in the deep would gift Fenton the wicket of big hitting Khalid for 20.

St Fagans however took full advantage of some wayward bowling from the Wanderers and added 89 runs in the final 10 overs to take the score to 217-5.

In reply, Blundell and Coleman applied themselves well in the first 12 overs taking the score up to 66 with some lusty blows to all corners of the large outfield.

Coleman was out caught for a well worked 21 in the 13th over with Ram joining Blundell in the middle.

Ram showed intent from the get go providing excellent support for Blundell who was finding the gaps and the boundary at regular intervals.

Blundell eventually lost his wicket for an excellent 46, caught well at deep long on.

Thimmanacheru along with Ram kept the Wanderers up with the required run rate but after the loss of both of them (for 29 and 20 respectively) scoring became harder.

A partnership of 29 runs between Daf Howells (11) and Fenton (22) led to 62 runs required from the final 10 overs.

Skipper Allen (18) along with Fenton and Venkat (11) gave the Wanderers a faint sniff of victory going into the final 2 overs.

It was however too big an ask despite a huge 6 from Grant (7 no) with the Wanderers falling 6 runs short of victory.

St Fagans won by 5 runs.

Members past and present are reminded that the annual fixture vs the President’s XI will take place on Sunday the 11th of July at Hayes Point.

https://barrywanderers.play-cricket.com/website/results/4885822