Ben Kitt took an excellent 5-34 as Nottinghamshire's Academy secured a winning draw against Mansfield Hosiery Mills.
The Academy won the toss and chose to bat first. They got off to a less than ideal start when Joe New was stumped off a wide in the 2nd over rendering the scoreline a rather unattractive 3-1. Runs were hard to come by before drinks and Hassan Azad was caught by Kunal Manek to give Kyle Garside his second wicket in the 18th over.
With the score at 83-2, it fell to Dan Freeman and Adam Tillcock to take responsibility for the innings. Together they amassed 35 before Tillcock was caught by Curtis off K Jayasinghe for 27. Freeman faired a little better and clinched a half century before being bowled by Matt New for 68. 160-4 on the board, The Academy attempted to push on with Brett Hutton making 43 but the collapse of the lower order saw Franks, Wood and Kitt dismissed before reaching double figures. After 50 overs The Academy’s troubles concluded with Keast finishing on 10 and Tolley on 0 and 214-8 the final score.
If Mansfield Hosiery Mills had begun their reply with inflated confidence, it was stalled slightly by the loss of Gareth Curtis for just 4 runs. His pull to mid on fell into the hands of Chris Tolley to give Ben Kitt and the Academy their first wicket. Tom New arrived at the middle to join brother Matt and they managed a 50 partnership before Matt was run out by Ben Kitt for 28. An ominously similar scoreline to that of their opponents at this point in the game, Mansfield Hosiery Mills were now 72-2. Mark Smallwood was next in to join Tom New but it was to be a short-lived partnership as New was caught at slip by Brett Hutton on 39.
Jayasinghe came in to join the fray only to be dismissed for just two runs after 15 minutes. At this point the visitors were resting perilously on 98-4 when Robert Townsend replaced the outgoing Jayasinghe. Smallwood gave Kitt another wicket, as he sent the short ball sailing to keeper Tom Keast and just four overs later Matt Wright was dismissed in similar fashion. Kitt went on to collect two more in the next over; taking James Fraser out for a duck and trapping Manek lbw to put pressure on Mansfield Hosiery Mills’ remaining batsmen to save the day. Walking to the crease with the score a rather unattractive 122-8, Kieran Garside failed to add any runs to the total before being stumped by Keast of Keedy in the final over. The last man in was Kyle Garside who managed to score 7 runs before close of play to bring the total to 141-9 with Townsend left on 23 not out. Ben Kitt finishing with blistering 5-34 from 10 overs and the Academy secured a winning draw and 17 points