Banbury eased to a 5 wicket win against Evesham after Kiwi Ant Bullick took 6 – 11. Ashley Blanchard was Banbury’s top performer with the bat as he struck 43 not out, displaying some clean hitting.
While Bullick was the main destroyer, all of the 6 Banbury bowlers bowled well. Richard Brookes was impressive on debut capturing 2 wickets and displaying good accuracy and movement in the air and off the pitch. Ed Smith and Jimmy Phillips took a wicket a piece and Millie Faruq bowled well and was unfortunate not too to be rewarded in the wicket column.
Evesham’s main resistance came from Matt Snyman (49) before he holed out to deep midwicket off of Phillips. The South African batted well as wickets fell around him though Brookes had him caught behind off a no-ball and Faruq forced a thick edge that was dropped at second slip.
There were positive contributions from the bat from Ian Tew and Shahbaz Ali who both made 20 before the latter fell to Banbury old boy Neal Radford. Ashley Blanchard timed the ball better than anyone had all day on a slow pitch and looked in good nick during his unbeaten 43
It was Bullick’s day however as he claimed his wickets in 2 bursts of 3. His opening spell saw 3 of the top 4 perish including wickets in consecutive balls during his second over. He then returned to polish off the tail clean bowling numbers 10 and 11.