Aberystwyth (312-4) beat Pontyberem II (38) by 274 runs

South Wales Cricket Association - Division 9 West

MARK Evans returned to Aberystwyth’s SWCA 1st XI with a blistering century but was for once overshadowed by a match-winning hat-trick by Aadvik Khare as the hosts stormed to victory at the Geufron against Pontyberem 2nd Xi on Saturday.

Aberystwyth were in the luxurious position of being able to rest strong players and skipper Jim Vaughan had no hesitation in opting to bat first upon winning the toss.

Openers Adam Shaw and Ceri John immediately set about building a solid opening partnership, moving swiftly to 71 before Shaw picked out the short cover fielder to fall for an excellent 26.

John continued to a classy half century, eventually falling to Adam Bowen for 64, but the innings was given fresh momentum with a brutal attack on the Pontyberem bowlers by Mark Evans, returning to the side after a number of years’ absence.

Evans combined punishing cuts and pulls of anything short with some awesome straight driving to race to a superb century as Aberystwyth closed in on maximum batting points.

Those points were guaranteed by a powerful innings of 78 from David Wilcockson, ably supported by Iestyn Roberts and Steffan Roberts as the hosts closed on an intimidating 312-4 from their 40 overs.

In reply, Aberystwyth’s opening bowling attack of Harvey Knights and Bryn Williams once again did a wrecking job on the opposition’s top order.

The combination of Knights’ pace, bounce and late movement (3 for 2) and the intelligent swing and variations of Williams 2-21) combined to reduce Pontyberem to 31 for 5.

At that point, the skilful wrist-spin bowling of Pranav Krishna and Aadvik Khare made short work of a bewildered lower order.

Krishna finished with 1-8 while Khare took a superb 4-7 including an amazing hat-trick – three wickets in three balls – to finish off the match in style and guarantee Aberystwyth a maximum points victory by the huge margin of 274 runs as Pontyberem were shot out for just 38 in just 16 overs.

Aberystwyth’s debut in the South Wales Cricket Association has made the strongest possible start, with a maximum 60 points after three games and the match-winning performances of young players who have come up through the club’s youth developments system has been a feature of the first weeks of the season.