DULWICH WERE unable to break a last-wicket partnership in their Travelbag Surrey Championship Division 2 match against Old Rutlishians, and had to settle for a winning draw for the second week in succession.
Dulwich were put in to bat, but got off to a flying start as Nick Hudson and Tom Savill raced to 49 in the first six overs.
The stand had reached 55 in the ninth over when Hudson was dismissed for 22, off 25 balls.
Savill was joined by Henry Hazlewood, who helped him add 30 for the second wicket before falling for sixteen at the end of the seventeenth over.
Richard King fell for three, but Salaar Waqar then joined Savill in adding 34 for the fourth wicket. Savill was the next man to go with the score on 136 in the 29th over. His 74, made off 77 balls, was his fifth score over 50 in just six innings this season, and takes his aggregate to 382 runs at an average of 63.66.
Keeper Will Bancroft joined Waqar in a stand of 49 in nine overs for the fifth wicket before falling for seventeen. Waqar and Jon Lodwick added a further 20 before both fell in successive overs, Lodwick for eleven and Waqar for 53.
Waqar’s innings had taken just 60 balls and was his second 50 in successive matches and third of the season. Leon Sealy scored the next nine runs before the last three wickets fell in four balls, including two lbws off successive balls.
Dulwich had lost their last six wickets for 29 runs, and the last five for nine runs, to be dismissed for 214 off 47.2 overs. With 52 overs to get the runs, the visitors started at a much more sedate pace against Lodwick and Sealy.
They had just started to accelerate when Sealy had Matt Vandepeer lbw for eighteen in the tenth over with the score on 41. He followed this up four overs later by bowling the other opener Dan Wood for 23.
Josh Price and Rory Pemberton took the score to 102-2 off 26 overs at the drinks interval, seemingly well set for a push for victory. However, spinners Waqar and skipper Alex Gledhill then imposed such restraint that only 35 runs came off the next thirteen overs for the wicket of Pemberton, who was lbw to Gledhill for 35.
With the score on 137-3 after 39 overs the visitors still needed 78 for victory off thirteen overs. Levi Olver rejoined the attack and his first six overs went wicket-less for 22 runs. But his second spell saw him take five wickets in 20 balls, including Price, stumped by Bancroft.
His 56 had taken 110 balls as his aggressive shots repeatedly picked out the fielders. Gledhill also picked up a second wicket, and Old Ruts had declined from 144-3 to 173-9 in the space of 6.2 overs as they tried unsuccessfully to keep up with the required rate.
There were 4.2 overs left to try and separate the last pair, but they resisted everything that Olver, Gledhill and Lodwick could throw at them to finish on 179-9 after their 52 overs. Olver finished with 5-43 off thirteen overs, while Gledhill ended with 2-31 off 13 in a typically miserly spell, and Sealy took 2-29 off nine.
For the second week running Dulwich gained ten points for a winning draw against one of the four leading teams, and overtake Epsom to climb to eighth place.
Next week they travel to Bank of England, who are marooned at the foot of the table having so far lost all of their completed matches. Result: Dulwich 214 (47.2) drew with Old Rutlishians 179-9 (52)