Lymington had a tough day against the Hampshire Academy in a tight game losing by three wickets despite the best efforts of Jovan Dhariwal with a knock of 50 that took 57 overs. The Academy had the best of the batting conditions as Lymington lost the toss yet again and were inevitably put in to bat on a damp wicket that helped the seamers with the ball keeping low at times.

Lymington got off to a bad start with an excellent spell from Dom Kelly (3-14) taking three early wickets to reduce the innings to 23-3. This included captain Ben Rogers after the ball hit his foot and dribbled past off stump removing a bail and Monam Abbas (2) who has been in such fine form this season. However, opener Jovan Dhariwal found an able partner in brother Kamran who has been in fine form during the week with two match winning T20 batting performances for Hampshire seconds. The two Dhariwals put on 53 runs for the fourth wicket before Kamran (38 including 7 fours) was out to leg spinner Zack Basey (3-55). Jovan remained steadfast with some more limited support from Conor Moors (14), Gareth Berg (14) and Josh Royan (9). Lymington slipped to 141-9 when Jovan got out having just reached his 50. He had faced 162 balls in a marathon innings that took 13 minutes short of four hours and only hit one four. All was not lost though as Asad Abbas (32 not out in just 23 balls) finally hit some form and with Liam Thompson (12 not out) they put on an unbroken 44 for the last wicket including a 16 run last over before the innings closed.

It was always going to be a challenge for the Lymington bowlers and after captain Ethan Martin (7) had been bowled by Gareth Berg (1-46) Finn Gordan (36) and Ben Mays (22) put on 58 for the second wicket before Mays was set up by Liam Thompson (2-42) and had him lbw. Lymington hauled themselves back into the game as five wickets fell for 62 runs with Josh Royan (2-23) and Guy Layman and Asad Abbas each taking one wicket. They could even have won it but Dom Kelly (62) was also in good form with the bat and almost saw the Academy home helped by Sam Davis (26 not out). The Academy finally got home with eight balls to spare.

This coming Saturday Lymington have an away clash with local rivals Bashley with an 11 am start. This will be another tough game with Bashley being top of the league.