Cricket

Dorchester 223-4 (18) beat BRIDPORT 221-7 (7) by 6 wickets

JON WHETLOR was disappointed by Bridport's lack of fight in the field when they were beaten by Dorchester II on Saturday.

The skipper top scored with 65 but then looked on as his men shelled five catches and bowled 35 extras in the field.

Bridport failed to defend a total of 221 and conceded 110 runs in the final 14 overs of the home side's innings.

Adam Herring was the only bowler to come out of the game with any credit from his captain.

Whetlor said: "The bowlers, with exception of Adam Herring who was excellent, let themselves down.

"We bowled 28 wides and dropped five catches at crucial times which tells its own story.

"We are not going to win any cricket matches if we give the opposition 50 overs to get our runs and give them a 30 run head start.

"Credit to Dorchester who chased 7 an over for much of the innings and won.

"They were much better than us."

After winning the toss Bridport started well and found themselves 101-1 with Whetlor (65) and Phil Gisborne (37) going well.

The middle order continued to build strong partnerships with Joe Hawkins (26) and the in-form Chris Backhouse (35no) chipping in well.

At the halfway stage Whetlor was pleased with his men and afterwards had no worries about their batting performance.

"I'm very happy again with the team's batting on a difficult pitch," he said.

"There were good contributions from everyone in the top six.

"Dorchester bowled very well and straight which made it very hard for us.

"221 was a good score and very defendable."

His team took to the field and after Dorchester made a good start they soon succumbed to the threat of Herring.

The home side slumped to 87-4 as Herring picked up three quick wickets but recovered through Tony Foot (59no) and Matt Chalmers (59no).

The Dorchester pair put on an unbroken 136-run partnership as Dorchester romped home with five balls to spare.