A five-wicket haul from Baz Sewell helped Dunmow CC get their season up and running on Saturday with a convincing 83 run victory over Sudbury 2nds.

After losing the toss and being asked to bat, Dunmow openers Luke Swanston and Joe Gallant got the innings off to a steady start with a 50 run opening stand, but not without a couple of chances going down from the Sudbury slip fielders.

After the loss of the first wicket, Swanston decided to try and up the scoring rate and was successful for a while until one too many shots saw him dismissed for 59.

Sudbury managed to pick up a couple of cheap wickets to leave Dunmow at 100-4 at drinks with the game finely balanced.

With the slow bowlers now operating, Chris Barker and Nick Kesingland knocked the ball around picking up runs with little danger and ticking the score up nicely.

With Dunmow in a strong position, Kesingland started to attack and cleared the rope regularly before being bowled for a well made 65.

The lower order were unable to find the boundary as easily as Dunmow closed on a respectable 211-9.

The Sudbury reply almost mirrored the Dunmow one and at drinks they found themselves in a similar position of 98-4.

But this was where the game was to swing in Dunmow’s favour as Sewell and Jake Thompson put in match-winning performances.

Both had opportunities at hat-tricks, but unfortunately didn’t succeed, however this did not stop Dunmow wrapping up the innings quickly as Sudbury were bowled out for 128.

Thompson took 3-21 and Sewell was the star performer with 5-18.

Dunmow travel to Mildenhall 2nds on Saturday.