Poor shot selection costly for Suffolk

POOR shot selection cost Suffolk dear as they went down by two wickets to Cambridgeshire in the NCCA Trophy.

Suffolk were bowled out for 195 in just 44.3 of their allotted 50 overs in Sunday’s Group 3 game at Sudbury CC, sponsored by Fenn Wright, before the visitors won with six overs to spare.

The result means Cambridgeshire have topped the group and the winners of next Sunday’s match between Cheshire and Suffolk at Didsbury CC will qualify for the quarter-finals as runners-up.

Suffolk skipper Tom Rash said afterwards: “We have sat down as a team and identified a couple of areas we could have improved on.

“It is criminal really not using all of our overs up with the bat and realistically if we had another 20 or maybe 30 runs then I think we might have crept over the line.”

Suffolk, who won the toss in a match sponsored by Fenn Wright that attracted a crowd of around 300 spectators to the compact Friars Street ground, lost four wickets inside the opening 14 overs.

Essex opener Nick Browne, who had been dropped twice early on, and Mildenhall’s Matt Allen (pictured above) then shared a fifth-wicket stand of 59 in the next 14 overs.

Browne chipped a shot straight to Josh Porter on the mid-wicket boundary to end his innings of 73 from 83 balls with nine fours.

Sudbury’s Alex Quin, who was brought into the side for his debut after Darren Ironside dropped out overnight, and Allen were both smartly stumped down the leg side by Jack Potticary off the medium-pace bowling of Ben Cliverd.

Although Rash and Jacob Marston both got into double-figures, Suffolk’s innings ended with 33 deliveries unused.

Potticary (35 off 43 balls) and Nikhil Gorantla with a run-a-ball 40 put Cambridgeshire on course for victory despite a good opening spell by Tristan Blackledge, who claimed the first two wickets to fall.

Although Suffolk’s bowlers kept it tight, with Rash returning to the attack to take two wickets, the visitors were always favourites to win and the run-rate was never an issue.

All-rounder Wayne White, batting at No.6, made an undefeated 55 off 66 deliveries laced with nine fours to steer Cambridgeshire home.

Scorecard

Tags: Cambridgeshire CCC, Matt Allen, NCCA 50-over Trophy, Nick Browne, Sudbury CC, Tom Rash

Categorised in: Suffolk CCC