Berkshire men played Bedfordshire CC last Sunday at Wargrave Cricket ground. We needed to win both games to make sure we topped the group. That would give us the advantage of hosting the Super 12 fixtures.
In the first game Bedfordshire chose to bat first. Rishton and Dunnett opened the bowling for the Stags. Rishton broke through early and set the tone for the rest of the attack. All the bowlers were excellent and were backed up by some excellent fielding and restricted Beds to a below par score of 126 in their 20 overs. Andy Rishton with incredible figures of 4 overs 1 wicket for 7 runs.
Connell and Lewis started fast and after four overs had flown past 40 and had only lost Lewis. Connell smashed 36 off 23 balls and set up the chase. Berkshire coasted home in the 17 the over with Lincoln and Dunnett finishing 35 and 26 not out respectively.
GAME 1 SCORECARD & VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS
Onto the second game and again Bedfordshire captain decided to bat first. This time they fared a little better and reached 143 in 20 overs. Once again Rishton was the pick of the bowlers taking 4 for 21 in his 4 overs. An incredible day for our leader of the pack. With rain around we wanted to get this chased as fast possible. We lost Lewis and Connell with 28 runs on the board and then the rain came after 5 overs. We lost 4 overs and our target was only reduced by 21 runs. Bedfordshire now has a chance as now we needed to go at over 8 an over when before the rain we only needed just over 6 an over. Captain Lincoln and Dunnett accelerated our innings beautifully with excellent running and some beautiful cover drives. Lincoln was last man out for 33 off 23 balls and young Ben Salter joined Dunnett and finished the game off. The Berkshire boys got home with 9 balls to spare and Dunnet and Salter finished with 42 and 16 not out.
So we ended our group campaign where we won 7 in a row and finished top of the group. The boys were quite exceptional and now we move on to the 3 day campaign where we face Devon back at Wargrave CC on the 20th July.
Once again Wargrave CC were exceptional hosts for the day and the large crowd were not only entertained by the cricket but the DJ Wargrave had hired for the day.