30th July 2021

Hythe Crushed by dominant Sway

Sway III 208-4, Hythe & Dibden IV 35ao
 

Sway produced an all round dominant performance at Pennington to ease any relegation fears.

Despite some earlier rain, Sway skipper Dave Marshall won the toss and opted to make first use of the batting track.

Sway opened with a mixture of youth an experience - Dan Stevenson pairing with U14 Olly Marshall. The pair batted sensibly wary of some uneven bounce and aside from this were rarely troubled by the Hythe opening attack.

The pair built on a solid start both notching up half centuries in an unbeaten 100+ run opening partnership until Stevenson was forced to retire hurt on 66 off 92 balls due to a thankfully temporary asthma issue. With such a solid base Sway looked to put Hythe to the sword, but fired a couple of blanks with their middle order big hitters,. Ryan Drayton (4)  popped a catch up off veteran Steve Chiverton whilst Vito Falso had raced to 12 before he attempted a big heave to a slower ball and was bowled. Meanwhile Marshall had pushed on to 62 off 93 balls before he eventually holed out.

It was then down to an energetic partnership between Pete Bennet and Noah Glass - Bennet hitting an unbeaten 17 and Glass an impressive 23 off 22 balls. When Glass was dismissed the penultimate ball, the icing on the cake as a first ball straight drive by Will Pearson as Sway finished up on 208-4.

Hythe were under the cosh from the start of their reply with a couple of maidens from Steve Drayton and Dave Marshall building the pressure. The pressure told when youngster Tom Lambley was caught in the gully by Marshall senior off Drayton. Two more quick wickets followed for Drayton as the Hythe numbers 3 and 4 both fell cheaply.

Hythe veteran Pete Miller, however, had no intention of batting for points and the field was set to tempt in to some attacking shots - a couple of boundaries followed. Sharp work by Bennet to have him stumped off Drayton for 12 was, however, almost the final nail in the coffin of the visitors victory hopes. Marshall senior then had his old rival Dave Agha caught behind. But it was Drayton's day with the ball - a big heave by Jamie Fletcher could not have picked out Glass more accurately at deep mid wicket - the youngster made no mistake giving Drayton a 5 wicket haul and career best figures of 5-1-10-5

Sway then turned to their change bowlers. Will Pearson produced a beauty of a slower ball to bowl James Brading for a duck whilst at the other end Marshall junior confused the opposition with  a couple of dodgy balls then picked up two wickets in his single over. It was left to Ollie Smith to wrap up the game, having another old friend Kev McCarthy nick one through to the keeper as Hythe were skittled out for a disappointing 35.

Olly Marshall & Dan Stevenson - 100+ opening partnership

Steve "Matt Goss" Drayton - career best figures