CONFIDENCE is flowing through the Bungay side at the moment, and nowhere is this observed more than in the batting of Matt Watts. Mixing savage square cuts and aesthetic drives through the off-side, Watts hit 13 fours on his way to an excellent 73 in Bungay's win over Great Melton in Alliance Four.

CONFIDENCE is flowing through the Bungay side at the moment, and nowhere is this observed more than in the batting of Matt Watts.

Mixing savage square cuts and aesthetic drives through the off-side, Watts hit 13 fours on his way to an excellent 73 in Bungay's win over Great Melton in Alliance Four.

Having been put into bat on a damp but firm pitch, Watts and skipper David Fuller put together 140 in 32 overs. Fuller, building on his 50 from the previous week, was at his obdurate best, punishing width and finding gaps in the field.

A feature of the partnership was the excellent running between the wickets, a feature of this Bungay side that other teams in the league could do well to follow. Eventually Watts was stumped, seduced from his crease by the leg-spin of Cooper.

The spinner was beginning to enjoy himself, this being the first of three wickets in as many overs for the youngster, as Fuller (59) and Davis (1) followed Watts back to the pavilion.

The scoring rate slowed as Chris Fuller and Tom York rebuilt the innings; after 38 overs the score had moved along to 155-3. However, few players in the league hit the ball as cleanly or as hard as York when he is in form.

Having reached 20 with only one boundary, he suddenly tucked into Cooper's leg-spin hitting him for two sixes in his last over.

When the medium pace of opener Scott was re-introduced, York found this just as appetising bludgeoning another six and three fours before departing in the last over for 62.

Bungay posted a challenging total of 218-6 off 46 overs. The Melton attack stuck to their task but lacked any real penetration on a pitch that was flat but moist.

Bettridge bowled tightly in his 12 overs to record figures of 0-38 while Cooper was the most successful returning 3-51.

The Melton openers started steadily in the face of some impressive overs from the Bungay pair of Chris Fuller and Will Lewis.

Fuller beat the bat on more than one occasion and Lewis bowled with impressive pace and control despite the hill and wind that the captain had asked him to bowl into. However, slowly Wood and Whidett began to take control.

Whidett crunched a number of impressive boundaries while Wood was very watchful in defence. The fate of the innings rested on a mix-up between the two openers, which resulted in Wood being run out.

York, who had replaced Lewis then bowled Whidett with a beauty, for 42, to leave Melton on 91-2

York was obviously revelling in his role of bowling into the wind and Cooper found it very difficult to lay a bat on his bustling swing bowling.

At the other end, Pawsey had replaced Fuller and was bowling a very steady line.

However, Cooper, who had already received a life when on two, began to find his timing obviously encouraged by the site of Howard opening his shoulders at the other end.

The pair took score to 149, aided by some low-grade catching from the Bungay fielders.

Although the ground fielding was excellent at times, including three run-outs, catching continues to be an Achilles' heal for this team.

Elden was introduced up the hill and quickly removed Cooper while the returning Lewis accounted for Howard.

The tight bowling of Elden and towards the end David Fuller, strangled the Melton run chase and wickets fell at regular intervals over the remaining overs.

This resulted in Melton finishing on 190-9, falling short of even the secondary target of 196 required for a winning draw. Elden finished with the excellent figures of 3-24.