Braintree 2's suffered a second consecutive defeat on Saturday as they once again struggled to break a substantial second wicket partnership.

Having won the toss and elected to bat Bardwell came out of the blocks quickly on an excellent surface with Rick Wakeman dominating an opening stand of 53 before Jacob Wade was unfortunate to be given out LBW for 15 having just managed to inside edge an Andrew Sherry in-swinger onto his pads. This brought club pro Paballo Mogoera to the crease and after surviving a sharp chance to Dave Hale at slip he and Wakeman set about the Braintree attack putting on 177 for the second wicket in 26 overs.

The dolphins bowlers were punished for anything slightly wayward as the pair struck 37 boundaries between them taking advantage of a lightning quick April outfield.

The pair were separated in the 37th over when Joel Ainsley drew a mistake from Mogoera (108) and he hit one straight up in the air for Charlie Garner to take an excellent catch at long on. Having missed an opportunity a few overs earlier Garner held his nerve well and in Ainsley's next over Josh Kelly (12) offered an identical chance to Callum Lazarus who also took a fine catch, this time at long off. Great to see the youngsters holding on to stippling catches at crucial times in the game. With wickets falling regular at the over end Wakeman keep his nerve and he brought up his century in the 40th over before Leigh Garner had Sully caught by Joe Osborne at mid on before Perkins was run out rather fortuitously as the ball bounced back off of Hollingsworth's pads back on to the stumps from Steve Hale's throw.

Wakeman finished on 122 not out as Bardwell gave Braintree a tough target to chase down

​

Braintree began their chase with the veteran pairing of Jeremy Hollingsworth and Steve Hale and were soon in trouble as the latter attempted a hook shot off of the lively Jake Panting and offered a healthy top edge to keeper Wade. Runs started to flow from the bat of Hollingsworth as he began to find the fence regularly but he soon had to go as he was caught looking for another after a breezy 26 from 23 balls. That wasn't the end of his day though as he acted as a runner for incoming batsmen Dave Hale, who was injured in the field. Lee Fullgrabbe was next to go as he edged panting to first slip for a run a ball 16 and Hale wasn't far behind as he perished, also for 16, looking to go over the top of the infield. The loss of Joe Osborne for 0, trapped in front by Larder, and Charlie Garner, bowled by Mogoera for the same score, saw Andrew Sherry and Leigh Garner come together and take the score beyond 100 but once those 2 had departed for 19 and 16 respectively, the chances of a bagging some extra points went with them.

A tough day for the 2's but valuable experienced being gained for the young guns and some excellent catches from each of them