Wiltshire beat Lincolnshire to go through
Wiltshire at last completed a group match in the MCCA Trophy when they put on a stunning performance to beat Lincolnshire at Corsham on Sunday by 8 wickets and so qualify for the quarter final. Lincolnshire won the toss and chose to bat and got off to a rapid start as Dan Birch (77 off 53 balls) and James Morgan (62 off 63 balls) put on 109 for the first wicket off 12 overs. Wiltshire managed to peg back the scoring rate with Ashur Morrison taking 1 for 39, Tom Bowler 2 for 39 and Mukesh Bhatt 1 for 44. The other wicket takers for Wiltshire were Tahir Afridi 1 for 52 and Owen Alsop 2 for 61. Jonathan Cheer scored 68 at a run a ball as the Lincolnshire innings finished at 280 for 7 wickets off their 50 overs.
In reply Wiltshire got an even better start than Lincolnshire as Ed Kilbee (109 not out in 119 balls) and Jayden Levitt (132 off 108 balls) attacked the bowling from the start and put on 225 for the 1st wicket in 32 overs. When Levitt was caught on the boundary only 56 were needed off 18 overs and despite losing Henry Langford for 9, Joe Breet (20 not out) joined Kilbee to see Wiltshire home with over 7 overs to spare as they scored 284 for 2 wickets.
With Suffolk also winning both counties have 5 points and cannot be caught at the top of the table with 1st place and a home quarter final going to the team with the better net run rate. The quarter finals will be played on Sunday June 17th with their opponents not being known until after next weekend’s matches.
Wiltshire now have a break from 1 day cricket as they start their Championship programme with a match against Dorset on June 3/4/5th at Dean Park Bournemouth.
