Youth and experience see Wales NC home against Herefordshire

4th May 2021 | Matt Thompson

A blend of youth and experience enabled Wales National County to kickstart their 2021 campaign with a comfortable 50 run victory against Herefordshire at Brockhampton on Sunday. 

A composed century from former Cardiff UCCE batter Oskar Kolk anchored the Wales innings, after opting to bat first. The current Lansdown CC captain struck 6 fours and 6 sixes in his 109 ball knock, with an 80 run partnership with Connor Brown (54) being the highlight of the innings. Alongside Brown's support there were contributions in the middle order from Chris Matthews (21), Aneurin Norman (16) and 16 year old debutant Callum Nicholls (16) after openers Tom Bevan and Joe Voke fell cheaply. 

In their reply Herefordshire started brightly through Johal and Hinkley who put on 42 for the first wicket, before an excellent catch over his shoulder at mid on from Tomos Jones off Dan Lewis-Williams paved the way for inroads to be made. Lewis-Williams, making his first Wales NC appearance since 2015, claimed the key wicket of former Worcestershire staffer Matt Pardoe soon after without scoring thanks to a diving catch down the leg side from the tidy Chris Matthews. 

Herefordshire continued to play positively but struggled to keep up with the run rate as soon as the spin of Tegid Phillips and Sam Pearce were introduced. 20 year old Phillips in particular bowled with great skill and control during an outstanding spell which resulted in figures of 10-1-18-4 - a Wales NC career best to date. Lewis-Williams came back to mop up the tail to finish with four wickets to his name. 

Wales welcome Herefordshire to Lisvane CC on Sunday 16th May which serves as a final warm up match prior to the NCCA 50 over One Day Cup starting on 30th May - Wales will square off against Buckinghamshire at High Wycombe before hosting Bedfordshire at Lisvane on 13th June.