CRICKET: Early promise for county side (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

CRICKET: Early promise for county side

3:09pm Monday 16th April 2012 in News

WILTSHIRE made an excellent start to their season when regained the Marlborough Cup by beating Berkshire by six wickets at Trowbridge yesterday.

The county last won the trophy in 2009 but, winning the toss on a typical early season wicket, Joe Breet asked Berkshire to bat and they were soon in trouble against the opening bowlers.

Tahir Afridi (3-25) and Owen Alsop (4-38) did the damage as the home side made inroads.

There was one wicket each for Mukesh Bhatt and Paul Robbins as Berkshire were all out for 139. Richard Morris top scored for Berkshire with 48.

In reply, Wiltshire lost Toby Davies in the first over, but aggressive batting from Jayden Levitt (29), Henry Langford (31) and Breet (28) took them to the brink of victory.

It was finished off by 17 year old Jack Mynott (21*) and Tom Bowler (15*) as Wiltshire won with over 20 overs remaining.

This Sunday Wiltshire have their final practice match against Corsham CC against the host club, starting at 11am. The Corsham team will include several of the Wiltshire squad.

They then take on Shropshire at Trowbridge on the following Sunday in their first group match in the MCCA Knockout Trophy.

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