Clymping suffer one-wicket defeat at home to Ram

The defeat kept Clymping bottom of the table as Ram’s last pair of Joshua Prentice and Mitesh Patel put on the 14 runs they needed to take their side to victory.

Owing to a rain shower in the first innings, the game was reduced by three overs per innings.

Clymping, batting first after losing the toss, made 156-8 from 46 overs.

Andy Wilkinson and Chris Green shared a 44-run opening stand, before Wilkinson was bowled by Kartik Patel for 21.

Wickets then fell at regular intervals – with Green the fifth man out for 42, with the score on 101.

Alan Budd added 21 and Richard Waddington struck 20 not out as Kartik Patel claimed 3-32 from 14 overs for Ram.

Clymping made a bright start to the Ram reply as Andrew Mitchell dismissed Darpan Amin (two) and Kartik Patel (four) to reduce them to 10-2.

Bunty Suthar and Deevam Patel put on 57 for the third wicket before Suthat’s dismissal for 43 – caught by wicketkeeper Green off Mitchell – led to four wickets falling for six runs.

That left Ram 73-6 but Harshil Patel and Prakash Krishnamurthy steadied things with a 56-run seventh-wicket stand.

The dismissals of Krishnamurthy (19), Danny Patel (three) and Harshil Patel (46) left Ram 143-9 but Prentice hit 11 not out and Mitesh Patel struck an unbeaten six to take Ram to victory.

Mitchell finished with 4-40 for Clymping and captain James Salisbury took 3-58.

Salisbury said: “Our total of 156 was decent on a wicket which had been affected by the weather but we felt we were 20 to 30 runs light.

“In the end, that was proved correct but Chris Green in particular batted very well.

“In reply, Andrew Mitchell put in a great spell of bowling and we took wickets at regular intervals. But three to four dropped catches and a couple of decisions that did not go our way meant we couldn’t quite bowl them out.”

Clymping travel to leaders Southwater on Saturday.