ON a hot August day in front of packed crowd at London Road, Andover II faced a mid-tabled Bournemouth II. Unfortunately Harry Blackburn lost the toss and unsurprisingly Bournemouth chose to bat...

ANDOVER’S opening bowlers James Knight (1-25) and Olly Cox (0-36) restricted Bournemouth to under 50 by the first drinks break.

But it was the first change bowling of Phil Knight (1-40) and Aidan Jansen (2-42) kept down the flow of runs.

Knight took a wicket a couple of balls after drinks and Cox ran out their main bat in the same over.

Jansen picked up two wickets in his first spell which kept the pressure on Bournemouth.

It told when Luke Andrews ran out their opener with an exquisite under-arm flick.

Josh Ballentine-Dykes picked up three middle order wickets with his big turning off spinners and darts however when Bournemouth were eight wickets down and with eight overs left Andover thought they would pick up the last two wickets with ease but Bournemouth’s number ten had other ideas.

A quick 39 from him including several sixes blasted Bournemouth to 191-8 off their 45 overs.

When Harri Williams was lost second ball of the second over Andover thought it might not be as easy as it looked, but Stu Summers and Shaun Attwood took them close to a finish with a partnership of 155.

It was a vintage Summers knock of 63, punishing anything with any width or over-pitched.

Attwood’s was a classic innings from the form batsman who smashed several sixes in his knock of 103 not out taking his tally past 600 for the season.

Summers was lost with just over 20 to win so Ballantine-Dykes (13*) supported Attwood to finish off the game with over 15 overs left.

Andover’s unbeaten run continues to nine matches now and with this win moved up to third in the table into the promotion zone.

Next Saturday they have a short trip up the M3 to face Old Basing in a vital match in the end of season run-in.