WILTSHIRE skipper Mike Coles hopes the clarity of the task in front of his side means qualification from the group stages of the Unicorns Knockout Trophy can still be achieved.

Coles’ men, victors over Hertfordshire in their tournament opener the previous week, lost out by 38 runs to Bedfordshire at Dunstable Town CC on Sunday to leave their ambitions of reaching the latter stages in the balance.

George Thurstance’s 101 helped the home side, who included Ashes-winning former England star Monty Panesar in their line-up, to reach 275-7 from their 50 overs.

But despite some notable resistance from the Wiltshire middle order, they came up 38 runs short of their target as Bedfordshire maintained their 100 per cent start to their campaign.

Coles reckons the difference was made in the start of each innings, with Wiltshire giving away some cheap runs while Bedfordshire’s precision had the visitors in trouble at 28-4 at one stage of the reply.

“We didn’t bowl that great and that enabled them to get off to a good start,’’ said the Corsham CC player.

“We really need to tighten up and not give the opportunity of easy runs.

“That’s really what teams have been doing to us. If you look at Bedfordshire, I think they bowled one bad delivery in the first 10 overs and it was one of those days for us where we didn’t execute our skills well enough.

“We’ve got two games to go (in the trophy) and the reality is that we really need to win both of those to qualify for the quarter finals.

“In a way, that takes the pressure off a little bit. We know what we’ve got to do and we can go out there (against Suffolk at Warminster) and try to play our usual game.

Having won the toss, Bedfordshire elected to bat, Wiltshire’s Tahir Afridi and Andy Carroll dismissing both openers Ben Howgego and Luke Thomas, both to catches by Ed Young.

But Thurstance and Charlie Thurston (32) put on 92 for the third wicket and Thurstance went on to share a stand of 83 with skipper Andy Reynoldson (61) as the home side built their total.

Jake Lintott and Afridi claimed two wickets, with Joe King also registering, but the bowling of Dean Bryce soon had the reply in trouble.

Openers David Cope and Tom Morton were dismissed cheaply and Young and Lintott also went without reaching double figures before Coles (59) and wicketkeeper Michael Bates (46) put on 102 for the fifth wicket.

Afridi raised hopes of a Wiltshire revival later on, clubbing 66 from 42 deliveries, but they fell short, Reynoldson taking 4-52 as Bryce finished on 3-42.

Sunday’s tie against Suffolk gets under way at Warminster CC at 11am.

Wiltshire's next match in the competition is against Suffolk on Sunday, May 15, at Warminster, starting at 11.00am.  

Wiltshire squad (v Suffolk): Michael Coles (Corsham, captain), Tahir Afridi (Henley), Michael Bates (Wokingham, wicketkeeper), Steve Bullen (Corsham), Andy Carroll (Westbury), Joe King (Corsham), Jake Lintott (Clevedon), Tom Morton (Ealing), Uzi Qureshi (Frocester), Jake Roberts (Potterne), John Sore (Swindon), Ed Young (Potterne).