National Counties Representative Beat MCC

Captain Dan Lincoln’s brilliant century led the National Counties Cricket Association XI to a crushing   254 runs victory over MCC in the annual representative match at the St Cross & Symondians club in Winchester. 

Berkshire skipper Lincoln struck 122 from just 69 balls to take NCCA to a mountainous 437 all out with 14 balls of their 50 overs unused. 

Lincoln’s innings included 13 fours and six sixes and he took a heavy toll of an MCC attack which included National Counties players in Simon Woodruff (Dorset), Hertfordshire trio Ben Waring, Mohammed Rizvi and Ashley Sivarajah and Western Australia off-spinner Will Bosisto. 

Having taken only 30 balls to reach 50, Lincoln needed just 23 more deliveries to complete his century which was the centrepiece of an impressive and aggressive batting display by a young NCCA side. 

Wales NC openers Cameron Hemp - who made 24 out of the first 28 runs - and Callum Nicholls (40) gave the innings solid foundations before Berkshire’s Euan Woods pressed the accelerator by striking 75 from 47 balls which dominated a second wicket stand of 109 with Nicholls. 

Cumbria’s Freddie Fallows sustained the assault, clobbering four sixes and six fours in a rapid half- century from 24 balls before NCCA stuttered, losing four wickets for 26 runs in mid-innings. 

But Lincoln wasted no time in repairing the damage with his Berkshire team-mate Shaariq Sheikh playing an important supporting role by making 45 from 39 balls in an entertaining eighth wicket partnership of 165 in 16 overs. 

Lincoln was eventually stumped off Bosisto, who took four for 45 in 4.4 expensive overs, before Wiltshire’s Josh Croom (23) and Staffordshire Sam Atkinson (14 not out) added 36 more in a lively last wicket partnership. 

Croom then removed Bedfordshire’s former Hampshire batter Oli Soames, bowled for a duck, four balls after Hertfordshire seamer Jack Plom had Bosisto LBW. 

Wiltshire coach Tom Morton offered the only prolonged resistance for the invitation club with a run-a-ball 85 before he was eighth out, bowled by Sheikh. 

But he was the only batter to top 20 as an asking rate of almost nine-an-over proved far too stiff for MCC who were dismissed for 183 with 17 of their overs unused. 

NCCA used eight bowlers, seven of whom took a wicket with Sheikh and Hertfordshire left-arm seamer Alex Gosling claiming two each. 

The win maintained NCCA’s unbeaten record against MCC with a third straight emphatic win since the fixture began in 2021. 

The match again provided useful preparation for NCCA ahead of their participation in the European T10 Championship in Malaga in October where they will be representing England for the third successive year.

Representative Match 

St Cross & Symondians CC: NCCA XI 437 (Dan Lincoln 122, Euan Woods 75, Freddie Fallows 53, Will Bosisto 4-45), MCC (Tom Morton 85). NCCA XI won by 254 runs. 

Photography Credit: Roger Byrne