Andover made it three wins in a row after victory in a low-scoring, rain-affected game at Rowledge last Saturday in Southern Premier League Division One.

Andover First XI, sponsored by Nordlock, named an unchanged team for their trip up to Rowledge, following their tight win against Hook the previous week.

Following some rain in the morning, the game was reduced to 37 overs per side with the match eventually getting underway at 2.30pm. Andover captain, Johnny Nyumbu, lost the toss and the Rowledge captain, Wish, chose to bat first.

New ball pairing of Aidan Jansen (2-20) and Babu Veettil (2-4) started off for Andover.

Jansen was first to strike in the third over with Rowledge opener, Martin, well caught by Richmond Mutumbami low down to his right with the score still on 0.

Veettil quickly followed, clean bowling the other Rowledge opener, leaving Rowledge 2-2.

Both Jansen and Veettil stuck to their lines and runs were hard to come by for the Rowledge batsmen.

Veettil struck again, bowling the left-handed Wish with Rowledge now 10-3.

After a tight first 10 overs from the Andover opening bowlers, conceding just 19 runs, Nyumbu threw the ball to the Banks-Williams brothers.

Joshua Banks Williams (3-18) struck in his first over, with Ollie Ryman caught behind my Mutumbami, meaning Rowledge were now 20-4. Four overs later, Banks-Williams removed Rowledge overseas, Cook, caught and bowled for just five.

Some resistance from Le Roux and William Ryman took the Rowledge score past 50 before Nyumbu brought himself on and removed Le Roux for 18.

Jansen came back on to clean bowl Ryman for 13 with score on 57.

Joshua Banks-Williams returned to bowl Croft and left Rowledge on 68 with just two wickets remaining.

Nuymbu (2-14) toiled away and eventually removed the experienced Lloyd for 3 and the score on 76.

A last partnership of 17 between Baker (18*) and Wish took Rowledge up to 93 with Ollie Banks-Williams (1-16) getting the final wicket in the last over. Top scorer for Rowledge was extras with 21.

Andover knew this wouldn’t be a straightforward chase with the pitch offering good sideways movement for the seamers and grip for the spinners.

The usual opening pair of Glyn Treagus and Harri Williams got Andover underway against Rowledge’s spin bowling, opening pair of Martin and Baker.

Williams was the first to go, bowled through the gate for eight, bringing Ollie Banks-Williams to the crease.

Treagus and Banks-Williams rotated the strike well against the Rowledge bowlers and waited for the bad balls.

With the score on 48, Treagus was dismissed LBW after advancing down the wicket for 27.

Disaster struck with Mutumbami also dismissed LBW by Cook after just two balls, leaving Andover 48-3 and still needing 46 to win.

Charlie Ayers joined Banks-Williams before the latter was caught at mid-off for 11 off the bowling of Cook, making it 49-4.

Ayers was dismissed the fowling over for four, with the score still on 49.

Matt Hooper joined Joshua Banks-Williams at the crease briefly as Hooper was caught behind for two.

Nathan Birks came to the crease and on his second ball called Banks-Williams back for a second run but unfortunately Banks-Williams was run out by the barest of margins.

Andover had collapsed from 48-1 to 53-7 in the space of just 15 balls.

The experienced Veettil joined Birks at the crease as the two looked to steady the ship and chip away at the 41 runs required for victory.

With still over 17 overs left in the innings, overs were not going to be the issue, it was wickets.

Birks and Veettil had other ideas and the pair started to pick off the singles and reduce the runs required.

When Rowledge brought on their one and only seamer, Ryman, the momentum started to swing in Andover’s favour with Veettil crunching two fours off Ryman in short succession.

Just two overs later with the score on 74, Veettil’s power hitting became evident, blasting Cook for two back-to-back sixes and leaving Andover with just eight runs for victory.

Some sensible strike rotation by the pair took the Andover score to 91 with just 3 runs required.

Cometh the hour, cometh the man. On the first ball of the 27th over Nathan Birks squeezed a four away through backward point to take Andover past Rowledge’s target of 94 and secure victory for the town side.

Birks and Veettil finished on 12 and 29 respectively with a partnership of 42, comfortably the highest of the game.

The win cements Andover’s second place in Southern Premier League Division One and keeps the pressure on leaders Basingstoke.

With Hook losing and Calmore’s game being abandoned, the result gives Andover some breathing room to the middle table.

Andover are on the road again next Saturday, away to Sarisbury Athletic, as the side look to make it four wins in four and continue to hunt down Basingstoke.