Ashtead fight to the end to secure Malden victory

VISITORS GIVE TENSE ENDING TO PRE-SEASON PREPARATIONS

- 

ASHTEAD concluded their pre-season preparations with a tense three-wicket victory at home to Malden Wanderers.

The visitors won the toss and elected to make first use of a surface that had a good covering of grass and had received some rain the evening before.

Ashtead would have chosen to bowl in any case, so both sides started out happy. And the early going favoured the bowlers, as returning overseas star Simon Keene removed both openers in the opening seven overs to reduce Malden to 31-2.

A period of relative calm followed. Ashtead rotated the bowlers to make sure all the seamers got some overs in their legs, and the Malden batters found some boundaries along with rotating the strike.

After 20 overs, the batting side had reached 81-2 and were setting a good platform.