CAPTAIN Ed Young believes Wiltshire have the makings of an ‘unstoppable team’ if they can learn lessons from their nervy season-opening victory at home to Buckinghamshire.

Wiltshire began their Unicorns Knockout Trophy campaign with a one-wicket win at Warminster on Sunday and it was not without its challenges as the home side only scraped over the line in the final over.

Young was delighted to start the year on a positive note and believes it can provide the platform for a positive season for the county side.

“It’s great to start with a win. A tense last-over thriller is a nice way to ease ourselves into the season,” said Young.

“We put ourselves in a tough position and we made harder work of it that we should have, but winning games like that are great for confidence and momentum.

“You learn a lot more from a game like that than you do if you win by five wickets or with 10 overs to spare.

“There were some really good things on Sunday but some things we need to learn from as well. The most important thing is that we learn to avoid losing wickets in clusters and I think if we can do that, we can be a pretty unstoppable team.”

After winning the toss, Buckinghamshire scored 264-9 off their 50 overs, with George Russell leading the way with 66 not out.

There were further half-centuries from Sherwin Gumbs (55) and Masoor Khan (50), while Wiltshire’s James Arney, Jake Lintott and Wes Durston took two wickets apiece.

In reply, Wiltshire got off to a flying start as Durston (73) and Tom Morton (43) put on 115 for the first wicket.

There then followed a collapse as the hosts lost six wickets for just 13 runs before Lintott (57 not out) and Ashur Morrison helped rebuild, taking the score from 138 to 199.

Lintott then marshalled the tail but when last man Joe King joined him at the crease, Wiltshire still needed 20 runs to win.

The final over arrived with the home side still 15 runs shy of their target but Lintott was able to see Wiltshire home by the narrowest of margins, finishing on 265-9 with just three balls to spare.

Young added: “I think both teams suffered the same ups and downs as we both lost wickets in clusters.

“We did really well to restrict them to 260-odd, especially as at the drinks break, they had two players well set in their 50s.

“Ashur and Jake batted really well after the great start we got from Wes and Tom. Then we made hard work for ourselves but thank God we still had Jake there at the end to finish it off.”

This Sunday, Wiltshire travel to take on Suffolk at Ipswich School.

The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald:

Wiltshire, back (l-r): Neil Shardlow (team manager), Tom Morton, James Arney, Michael Coles, Andy Carroll, Archie Easton, Will Wade, Wes Durston, John Collins, Brian White; front: Jon Williams, Jake Lintott, Mike Reynolds, Asher Morrison, Ed Young Neil Clark, Joe King.