SOUTH African professional Wesley Marshall posted his first century for Kendal on Saturday as Chris Miller’s side continued their impressive start to the season.

And Marshall completed a superb all round performance with a four wicket haul as his side crushed St Annes by 139 runs at Shap Road.

Marshall’s knock of 109 off 100 balls saw Kendal close on an imposing total of 225 for 8 off 50 overs.

And then his return of 4-20, coupled with Matthew Park’s 4-28, helped the home side shoot out the visitors for just 86 as they completed what proved to be a dominant performance.

Kendal lost the toss and were asked to bat but started relatively well when Marshall and Saeed Bariwala took the score to 21 before the latter was bowled by Matthew Yeadon.

The visitors applied even much pressure when Ryan Shephard was trapped lbw to leave the Auld Greys on 35-2.

But Marshall and Ben Phillips then began to accelerate the score with an imposing third wicket stand until Phillips was caught by Tom Higson off Amar Ullah with the score on 114.

Marshall continued to control proceedings as he eased into three figures, but the run rate slowed when Marshall fell to Mohammed Nadeem and the same bowler claimed the wicket of ex-Torrisholme man Dan Woods.

Nadeem closed with figures of 5-55 after taking the wickets of Terry Hunte, Edward Price and skipper Miller late in the innings.

However, Richard Dakin’s undefeated knock of 12 saw through to an imposing final total of 225-8.

When they took the field, Kendal made the perfect start when Park claimed the wicket of Drake who was caught by Woods.

Kendal then ripped through the visitors attack after Marshall ran out Australian overseas amateur Tim Smithies before the South African paid man claimed the key wicket of Amar Ullah to reduce St Annes to 46-3.

The Auld Greys continued to take wickets as Park bowled Nathan Armstrong then Marshall caught and bowled Nadeem.

Former Windermere player Park bowled both Richard Staines and Ben Reader to further emphasise the home side’s hold on the game to leave the scoreboard showing 61-7.

Marshall then took his side to the brink of victory after claiming the wickets of Gurman Baines and Henry Higson.

However, it was Miller who finished the game off when Tom Higson holed out to Marshall to bag the final St Annes wicket with just 34.1 overs gone.

Kendal hope to continue their good form when they travel to play Fleetwood on Saturday

Kendal Seconds were unable to emulate the first XI’s form as they fell to a 91 run defeat on Saturday in a Palace Shield Division 1B clash at Fleetwood.

The home side made an imposing total of 203-5 off 45 overs with Chris Marshall the pick of the Kendal attack as he finished with figures of 3-30.

Kendal’s reply never really got going and despite Shane Hyland’s 32 and 21 from Marshall, they were all out for 21 in 37.1 overs.