Astwood Bank I 311-3, Malvern I 228-9.

ON a rare sunny start to day one of the cricket season, Malvern at home won the toss and elected to field. It was a long hard session made more difficult by Malvern’s inability to bowl straight, as a result Astwood Bank were gifted close to two runs an over without having to face a delivery.

Not that they needed to be gifted anything as their batsmen performed well, with stand out performances from Sewell (53) and Robinson (111 no).

Malvern’s Kirkby (1-28) and Dovey (2-61) were the only bowlers to really hit their straps, and Astwood Bank declared on 311-3 off 45 overs.

To Malvern’s credit they went about chasing down such a big target with admirable intent, scoring at six-an-over for the first 25 overs.

But they lost wickets in the process, Dovey after some cracking cover drives can consider himself unlucky to be out for 18.

However, it was a partnership between Bendall (63) and Francis (35) that was the basis of the assault on the target.

At six down a decision was made to try and eat up some overs before reassessing whether there was an opportunity to give a last 10-over dash for victory.

But despite all of the batsmen’s efforts wickets still fell during that 20-over period and it was left to the last wicket partnership to bat out the last 10 overs.

They did this splendidly, which saw Kirkby end on 24no and Coughtrie 0 no.

The hosts concluded on a positive 228-9.

Malvern firsts travel to Pershore tomorrow (1.30pm start) in their second Crusader League fixture of the campaign.