Wiltshire CCC win over Wales keeps hopes alive of qualification for Unicorn T20 finals day

June 13, 2019

Tom Morton

Wiltshire and Wales battled it out in two T20 matches with Wiltshire knowing that success could see them ease into contention for the finals if Dorset failed to beat Cornwall. Wales won the toss and elected to bat first in Game 1. This very soon looked like a good idea as Tom Bevan 89, and Joseph Voke 35 put on 140 for the first wicket with Bevan being particularly aggressive hitting 9 fours and 7 sixes in his quickfire 35 ball innings. However, Tom Grant, in for the injured Jake Goodwin, soon put a stop to that as he had both openers caught in the same over eventually finishing with 3 for 17 from his 4 overs. With the openers both gone Wales fell apart and lost all ten wickets for a paltry 37 runs to close on 177 all out. Joe King finished with figures of 3 for 14 and skipper Ed Young 3 for 33 with Jake Lintott picking up the extra wicket. Wiltshire’s fielding was good and some fine catches were held with Neil Clark pouching 3, Joe King 2, Luke Evans 1 and keeper Tom Morton 1

In response Wiltshire showed their own aggressive tendencies with the bat. Jake Lintott led the way with a belligerent 75 from just 44 balls (9 fours, 3 sixes), but unlike Wales he found better support from Jack Haines 21, Ed Young 18, Brad Dawson 17 and Tom Morton 14 as Wiltshire chased down the Welsh target scoring 181 for 6 with 9 balls to spare. Two points to Wiltshire

After enjoying the excellent hospitality of a Warminster lunch the teams set out to do battle once more. A rain delayed start saw the game reduced to 17 overs per side. Wales again won the toss and again elected to bat. Different game, different story! Wales would have been hoping for a repeat performance from their openers Bevan and Voke but they were bitterly disappointed, The Welsh team looked on in despair as first Bevan, 2 and then Voke 1 were gone in the first two overs. Bevan miscued a shot from Arthur Godsal’s bowling (1 for 9) which fell into the grateful hands of skipper Ed Young and then Tahir Afridi (2 for 19) struck with his very first ball to snare Voke caught by wicketkeeper Tom Morton. Only skipper Sam Pearce 25 offered any resistance before he was bowled by Ed Young (3 for 15). Wickets fell with regularity as Wales limped to 61 for 8 from 12 overs. The last wicket to fall saw a splendid running catch in the deep from debutant Will Harries to give Joe King (1 for 3) The other wicket fell to an excellent run out by Jack Haines. Sadly, it wasn’t just the wickets that were falling, but raindrops too. The umpires persevered for as long as they could, but eventually had to bring the players off before the persistent rain eventually caused the game to be abandoned – One point each. With Dorset winning both games against Cornwall it means that Wiltshire must beat Dorset twice next weekend and hope to overhaul Dorset on net run rate. Come along to South Wilts next Sunday 16th June and see if they can do it! (Matches scheduled to start at 11:00am and 2:30pm).

Squad for Unicorns T20 competition v Dorset

Next Sunday (June 16th) Wiltshire play their last group matches in the Unicorns T20 competition when they take on Dorset at South Wilts Cricket Club, Salisbury. The first match starts at 11.00am and the 2nd Match at about 2.30pm.

Wiltshire have named the same 12 who played Wales and added Jake Goodwin to the squad who missed the Wales matches through injury.