Suffolk ‘thoroughly deserve’ Super 12s spot

July 6, 2026

HEAD coach Adam Mansfield feels his Suffolk side ‘thoroughly deserve’ to be in this season’s Super 12s.

The Men’s 1st XI side qualified after finishing third in Group 2 of the NCCA Dojo T20 competition following a win and a loss versus Hertfordshire at Mellis CC on Sunday.

Suffolk needed to win both matches to guarantee their place or at least equal the results of Cambridgeshire, who started the final round of matches one point and one place behind Suffolk in fourth.

After losing the first match by five wickets, Suffolk won the second encounter by 30 runs to end with a record of won five, lost three from their eight group games.

That gave them six points, four points having been docked for fielding an unregistered player in the two wins at Cambridgeshire, who lost by 109 runs before winning by seven wickets at home to Norfolk.

Mansfield said: “It was a really good day and Mellis hosted it really well at a lovely ground. I think we thoroughly deserve to go through.

“I am really pleased for the boys after they were docked the points that wasn’t anything to do with them – it was an admin error from our side – and I think that goes to show that we are becoming a decent T20 team.”

After winning the toss and choosing to bat first, Suffolk got off to a flying start in the opening game, Alex Oxley and Feroze Khushi putting on 87 in just ten overs.

Suffolk then lost three wickets in the space of seven deliveries and never picked up the pace again to close on 149 for 8, Khushi falling for 74 off 48 balls (10 x 4, 1 x 6) with nine balls remaining.

Opener Ben Clifford’s undefeated 66 off 55 saw the visitors home after he added 60 with Cole Seggery (24 off 18) for the second wicket before he fell to Josh Cantrell, who returned figures of 4-0-20-2.

Mansfield said: “We got off to a good start in game one. The pitch changed quite quickly when the ball got older and it became quite difficult to hit, after coming onto the bat nicely when the ball was new.

“We potentially didn’t adapt to that quickly enough, but Hertfordshire bowled quite nicely. At the half-way point we felt we were in the game.

“We didn’t do much wrong with the ball or in the field. Hertfordshire’s opener played really nicely and saw them home.”

Suffolk again won the toss and batted first in the second match, but had only made 82 for 4 when skipper Jacob Marston was dismissed for 34 off 25 from the first ball of the 14th over.

Cantrell (26 off 25) was run out off the penultimate ball of the 18th over, and it was only thanks to 22 off 11 from Freddie Heldreich (pictured above) and Tom Harper (18 off 5) that Suffolk posted 155 for 6.

Those 73 runs from the final seven overs proved pivotal as the visitors reached 82 before losing their fourth wicket in the 12th over. They then lost four more wickets for the addition of three runs to slip to 94 for 8.

Despite the efforts of Finn Kelsey (20 off 13) and Ben Waring, who was last man out with three balls unused after scoring 17 off 15, Hertfordshire fell 30 runs short.

Off spinners Ollie Burle (4-0-27-3), Harper (3-0-13-2) and Cantrell (4-0-26-2) kept them in check to send Suffolk through to the Super 12s against opponents and at a venue to be confirmed on Sunday, August 9th.

“In the second game Tom and Freddie were probably the difference between the two teams. Both innings followed the same kind of suit and we were fortunate enough to get a few away at the end.

“Those boys struck it quite cleanly and obviously when Hertfordshire batted, they didn’t get that finish to their innings that we did and that was the difference,” added Mansfield.

 

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