Wiltshire CCC v Herefordshire @Corsham This Sunday

5 Jul 2024   |   By Richard Prime

HEREFORDSHIRE begin their bid to regain a spot in NCCA Western Division

1 when they head to Corsham to take on Wiltshire on Sunday.

The county side was relegated back to Division 2 at the end of last season’s rain-disrupted campaign after defeat against Devon at Sidmouth.

The outcome of that match saw Devon crowned as champions but, the divisional placings were so tight with so much play lost to the bad weather during the season, it would have been Devon who would have been relegated had the outcome of that match been reversed.

There have been 22 previous Championship matches between Wiltshire and Herefordshire and it’s Wiltshire who hold a slight advantage with eight victories compared with Herefordshire’s seven. The other seven matches have been drawn.

But Herefordshire were the winners in a thrilling contest the last time the two sides met, at Brockhampton back in 2019, with Dan Conway marking the final match of his distinguished Herefordshire career by hitting the boundary which gave his side a one-wicket win.

It’s a sign of the fast-moving nature of the National Counties game that only one Herefordshire player, skipper Matt Pardoe, remains in the county side from that match five years ago.

Pardoe’s side will include for the first time off-spinning all-rounder Nathan Bowley, who has turned out for Leicestershire and is now playing his club cricket at Ombersley.

Herefordshire also welcome back key all-rounder Roshan Venkataraman, last season’s first-team player of the year, who missed a large part of the T20 and 50-over campaigns with a side injury.

There’s a return, too, for the young Worcestershire duo of Henry Cullen and Rehaan Edavalath who are called up for the first time this season.

Play in the three-day game at Corsham is due to begin at 11am on Sunday.

Herefordshire: Matt Pardoe, Ben Chapman-Lilley, Rehaan Edavalath, Henry Cullen, Nick Hammond, Ollie Walker, Luke Powell, Nathan Bowley, Roshan Venkataraman, James Rudge, Sam Keeling-Wright. Twelfth man: Luke Tulacz.

CAPTION: Matt Pardoe will captain the Herefordshire side against Wiltshire.