POOLE TOWN II 260-5 (20pts) beat PORTLAND RT 146 (4pts) by 114 runs

PORTLAND Red Triangle lost a fourth County Division One match of the season, Poole Town Seconds proving too strong in a 114-run reverse.

After seeing Poole win the toss and bat first, Portland bowled generously with 34 wides and allowed Poole’s top-order batters to accumulate freely.

Unusually for Portland, their batters then went into their shell in the chase and Triangle were dismissed for 146 on a difficult day at Poole Park.

Star performer for Poole was opening batter Robin Lutman (95) who very nearly carried his bat, only to be run out by Rich Samuel when agonisingly short of a century.

READ MORE: Portland Red Triangle lose to Corfe Mullen by 35 runs

Batting around him, Lewis Marais (38 off 32) and Shazaan Hussain (35 off 32) both scored quickly and a late blast from Oliver Thorne (34 off 32) pushed Poole to 260-5.

Off-spinner Jack Marsh (2-46) was the pick of Triangle’s attack, while Joe Adkins (1-12) picked up another scalp despite only bowling two overs.

Skipper Matt Randell limited the damage with a miserly return of 0-16 from his nine overs.

When Matt Barrett departed for 10 off nine balls early in Triangle’s reply, Portland were uncharacteristically timid in their response.

Callan Laws (16) and Dave Adkins (24) proved difficult to remove but did not score as quickly as Randell wanted.

The skipper took matters into his own hands with a brisk 25 from 22 deliveries before being bowled by George Reid (3-36).

When he went at 89-4, Portland relied on Simon Barrett (20no) to anchor the innings but the middle order and tail failed to produce, Dorset Over-50s bowler Joe Wilson (2-21) helping roll Triangle out for 146 along with Thorne (2-25).

Speaking to Echosport, Randell said: “I thought the track was lovely, they played good cricket and we played terrible cricket.

“We gave them too many runs but I felt it was probably chaseable on that pitch. What they did was apply more pressure on our bowlers.

“They made us bowl in different areas whereas when we went out to bat we weren’t busy enough and didn’t apply any pressure.

“We allowed them to bowl at us for long periods of time. To be honest, when we started we needed about five an over and by the time I went in it had gone up to about eight.

“It’s easy to do with running your runs but somewhere like Poole Park with it being so big you’re not going to have consecutive overs that go for 15 or 20 to bring the rate down.

“You’re going to be looking at staying at eight. A couple of good overs pushes it up.

“Two weeks in a row now in various positions in the order we’ve not been proactive enough. I think we’re better playing a positive brand of cricket and I‘d like us to go back to that as soon as possible.”

Triangle Seconds lost to Broadstone Thirds by 41 runs in Division Five.

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