Cheltenham, Gloucester and Forest League Premier Division

Parkend 128 all out (38.5 overs), Arcadians NineElms 113 all out (28 overs)

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ANDY Taylor scored 53, including seven fours, as Parkend opened the new league season with a win.

Coming to the crease at number five, Taylor helped steady the ship for the home side after they had been reduced to 33-7 – and the visitors’ decision to field first seemed to have been vindicated.

Taylor and eighth wicket Will Brooks put on 50 in 95 balls and had 98 on the scoreboard when Brooks was bowled by Ravi Verman for 17.

Opening batsman Luke Aldridge had earlier been bowled by Rajesh Gopireddy for seven with the score on 10 and fellow opener Ryan Burris fell to Verman for seven with the score on 18. Only two had been added to the scoreboard when Timmy Andrew was bowled by Gopireddy for two.

And Parkend were 21-4 almost immediately when Robbie Moore was caught by Muril Ramachandran for three off the bowling of Gopireddy.

Lee Ayres joined Taylor but when he went lbw for two Parkend were 28-5, and the score had only advanced to 33 when Daniel Brain went to the bowling of Verman for three.

Charlie Thomas went for a duck to make it 33-7 with the Gloucester side’s bowlers totally on top. But Taylor and Brooks orchestrated a revival before Verman struck twice in quick succession to claim the wicket of both Brooks and Scott Ayres for a duck to leave Parkend on 98-9.

A final wicket stand between Taylor and Arran Parsons then added a very useful 30 runs to the total before Taylor was run out.

Parkend quickly got down to business with Timmy Andrew claiming the first of two wickets bowling opener Saravanan Nurayanan for three with the score on nine.

Scott Ayres had the other opener, Aravindan Thangaraj, caught by Charlie Thomas for five with the visitors on 17.

Ayres, who finished the day with four wickets for 15 runs off 19 overs, struck again to dismiss Arvind Kumar Singh for 10 to make it 37-3. Deepak Matson was the visitors’ top scorer, but he went lbw for 24 off the bowling of Lee Ayres to leave Arcadians just over halfway to the target on 65-4.

Another 17 had been added when Gopireddy was bowled by Robbie Moore for nine and Verman was bowled by Scott Ayres to make it 86-6.

Arcadinas added another 10 runs before three wickets went for two more runs, with Muril Ramachandran bowled by Scott Ayres for one, Syon Jose run out for one by Arran Parsons and Des Powell bowled by Robbie Moore for a duck to make it 98-9.

Arran Parsons caught Roopak Rajan off the bowling of Andrew to close the innings on 113 all out.