WILTSHIRE captain Ed Young has urged his side to strike during the crucial period of games as they get set to resume their Unicorns Championship Western Division campaign.

Young takes his troops to Cornwall for their latest contest, with the county hunting a first three-day win of the summer after defeats in their first two matches.

Both Wiltshire’s opening game at Dorset and their most recent outing at home to Berkshire were tight after an innings apiece from either side, but Young’s men were unable to turn the screw over the second half of the match.

“The third innings of the game is always really important, and I always try to emphasise that,” said Young.

“If you are batting, you can really take the game away from the opposition by putting a big score on the board.

“And if you’re bowling, you can put yourself in with a great chance to win if you bowl well.

“You always look back at those key moments and think where you could have done a bit better, but that’s part of the challenge and we’re still developing as a young side.

“Hopefully we can learn from that and make sure we do it next time.”

Although his side currently sit bottom of the table as the only team to lose both their matches so far, Young feels there is plenty of reason to still be upbeat ahead of the long trip to face Cornwall, with the action getting under way at St Austell on Sunday.

“We have played some really good cricket, but we haven’t quite been consistent enough, which is understandable for what is still a new side,” said Young.

“There has been lots of invaluable learning experience for our young players.

“The Berkshire game last time out was a really disappointing one to lose, especially having restricted to them to a fairly achievable total in the third innings, but for 90 per cent of that game I thought we played really well.

“Of course it has been disappointing not to get the results we want, but from my perspective, there are certainly a lot of things for us to be encouraged about.”

Wiltshire team v Cornwall: Ed Young (Potterne, captain), Tahir Afridi (Henley), Steve Bullen (Leeds/Bradford MCCU), Neil Clark (Potterne), Brad Dawson (Goatacre), Luke Evans (South Wilts), Joe King (Corsham), Tom Morton (South Wilts, wicketkeeper), Ryan Murray (South Wilts), Uzi Qureshi (Frocester), Will Wade (South Wilts), Jake Goodwin (Potterne, 12th man).