Portsmouth’s winning Southern Premier League run ended in absorbing contest at Ventnor

Portsmouth’s Daniel Wimble top edges a sweep at Ventnor bowler Henry Bartlett ….. and is caught by Tom Friend. Picture by Dave Reynolds.

Aiming for a fourth straight Division 1 victory, the visitors were looking good with five overs of their fixture at Ventnor remaining.

After posting 252, Portsmouth reduced their hosts to 226-9.

But Ventnor’s last man, captain Ben Woodhouse, and fellow tailender Chris Russell saw the islanders triumph with just three balls left.

Woodhouse hit a six during the 48th over, which was bowled by Joe Kooner-Evans and from which Ventnor hit 12 runs.

Joe Smitherman (3-31) then conceded seven runs off the 49th over, including Russell hitting him over the boundary rope.

That left Ventnor needing six off Kooner’s final over, and Woodhouse smacked the first delivery to the boundary.

He took a single off the second and Russell collected the winning single off the next ball.

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Tom Friend (54) top scored in a consistent top order batting effort as Ventnor reached 188-4 before Portsmouth fought back to set up a tense finale.

The visitors had earlier been rescued from the depths of 126-7 by a seventh wicket stand of 83 between Carlin Joy (46) and Stephen Warner (41).

Captain Ben Duggan (36) and Jack Marston (34) had put on 79 for the opening wicket before Dineth Thimodya (2-53) removed both.

Henry Bartlett (3-36) dismissed the other three members of the top five, including the previous week’s SPL centurion Dan Wimble (13) and Australian Fraser Hay (30).

Basingstoke & North Hants replaced Andover at the top of the second tier after beating them by three wickets at May’s Bounty.

No 9 Laurence Benge (38 not out) and Bradley Neal (31 not out) added an unbroken 53 for the hosts’ eighth wicket after Andover had been shot out for 123.

Opening bowler Aidan Jansen (5-16 off 10 overs) had earlier taken all the wickets as Basingstoke lurched to 35-5.

Neal had bagged 4-38 as Andover crashed to 78-9, before a 45-run stand for the last wicket between Matt Hooper (35 not out) and No 11 Mike Adams (10) gave Andover’s attack something to bowl at.