Marlborough 117, Rockhampton 186-8 (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Marlborough 117, Rockhampton 186-8

MARLBOROUGH captain Richard Turnell has been left frustrated at the mental problems his team have when chasing a score over 150, following Saturday's loss to Rockhampton.

The 69-run defeat was only the second of the season for Marlborough, but left Turnell scratching his head at his side's troubles when chasing 150 or more.

He said: "Unfortunately, when we are chasing anything over 150 we haven't got the mental ability to do it.

"Anything around 150 we can do easily, but for some reason we seem to have a mental problem when we're chasing anything above that."

Rockhamton chose to bat and got off to a solid start as their openers Wilf Tyler (45) and Nigel Hopkins (34) put on 82 for the first wicket.

Ben Head (3-47) then dismissed both openers in quick succession, the second wicket was somewhat fortunate as Tyler trod on his stumps, and the home side were able to apply some pressure.

George Fox then came back into the attack and bowled an accurate spell of off-spin in partnership with Simon Williams (2-60) and Rockhampton were reduced to 160-7. Nathan Morgan (1-8) also bowled a tidy spell at the end and the final total of 186-8 from 45 overs was a realistic target for the Marlborough batsmen.

"At one stage it looked like we could end up chasing 250 plus, but our spinners and some great fielding kept it down and got us back into it," said Turnell.

In reply, Marborough were well placed at 54-1 after 15 overs with Australian Simon Williams going well. However, once he was dismissed for 47 with the score on 61 Marlborough collapsed to 74-6, with New Zealander Bob Johnson taking 3 for 47 with his leg spin. Richard Turnell then led a slight recovery with the lower order, but once he was run out for 23 Marlborough subsided to 117 all out.

It was a disappointing effort by the Marlborough batsmen who did not help themselves with four run outs.

"Simon was looking good for the first time but we couldn't get anything further down the order and we folded."