National Counties T20 Week 1 - Review

Herefordshire made a flying start to the National Counties T20 competition by beating the weather and Wales NC twice in a rain-ravaged opening round of matches.

Play was possible at only three grounds – all of them in the South West – with 15 of the scheduled 20 matches being abandoned without a ball being bowled and another washed out at the halfway stage.

Both matches at Llandysul were unaffected and Herefordshire banked four points in Group Four by winning the opening match by five wickets then romping to a 74 runs win in the second.

Wales were shot out for 58, their lowest total in the competition - and the third lowest by any county - with Barnt Green seamer Adam Hines returning Herefordshire’s competition-best figures of four for 13.

Wales managed to avoid Wiltshire’s competition record lowest total of 53 thanks to a ninth wicket partnership of 30 between Prim Sisodiya and Adam Sylvester but the margin of defeat was still their heaviest.

Hines’s figures the bettered the four for 18 that Jamie McIlroy – now on Glamorgan’s staff – took for Herefordshire against Berkshire at Eastnor in 2018 and helped to reduce Wales to 19 for five in pursuit of a target of 133.

Herefordshire’s total of 132 owed much to opener Olly Walker who struck six sixes in his 59-ball 71.

Captain Matt Pardoe (18) was the only other batter to reach double figures with Swansea seamer Sylvester taking four for 22 on his Wales debut.

Walker also scored useful runs in the first match of the day – 30 – but it was Luke Powell, with an unbeaten 43 from 23 balls who saw Herefordshire to a target of 153 with three balls to spare.

Opener Steffan Roberts made 65 for Wales and Glamorgan staffman Henry Hurle 38 with Pardoe taking two for eight with his slow left-armers and Roshan Venkataraman and Hines also taking two wickets each.

Honours were shared at St Just where Cornwall beat Devon by three wickets in the opener but Devon took their revenge by winning the second match of the day by the same margin.

Cornwall all-rounder Will MacVicar became the first bowler to take two five wicket hauls in the competition with his five for 28 in the opener following his career-best five for 19 against Dorset last year.

Devon were dismissed for 127 with five batters reaching double figures but only Ben Privett (26) reaching 20.

Former Kent allrounder Alex Blake led Cornwall’s chase with 51 from 31 balls but they lost five wickets for 23 in mid-innings before Alex Bone struck Will Christophers for six to clinch victory with 10 balls to spare.

Privett impressed with ball and bat in the second match. First he took five for 14, Devon’s second-best T20 figures, which dismissed Cornwall for 94, 30 of them from Bone.

Privett then made 23 runs at the top of the innings and debutant Charlie Sharland 29 which got Devon two-thirds of the way to their target.

Calum Haggett (15 not out) and Sam Read (17) completed the job, seeing Devon home with ten balls to spare.

The only other match in which play was possible was at Wimborne in the Group Five contest between Dorset and Wiltshire.

The opening match of the day was washed out but play began on time in the second and Wiltshire were soon dismissed for 72 with 31 balls of their innings unused.

Wiltshire lost five wickets for one run in 18 balls in a spectacular mid-innings collapse with National Counties XI off-spinner David Scott taking three of them in an over.

Scott finished with three for 13 and slow left-armer Connor Smith had identical figures with Wiltshire’s total being their second-lowest in the competition.

But rain and hail prevented Dorset beginning their chase and soon forced an abandonment.

There was no play possible in the three other groups with holders Staffordshire frustrated at Checkley where attempts to play the second match of the double-header against Cheshire were thwarted by heavy overnight rain despite the best efforts of the groundstaff.

National Counties T20

Group One

South Northumberland:  Northumberland v Cumbria. Both matches abandoned.

Checkley: Staffordshire v Cheshire. Both matches abandoned.

Group Two

Exning: Cambridgeshire v Suffolk. Both matches abandoned.

Great Witchingham: Norfolk v Lincolnshire. Both matches abandoned.

Group Three:

High Wycombe: Buckinghamshire v Bedfordshire. Both matches abandoned.

Wargrave: Berkshire v Hertfordshire. Both matches abandoned.

Group Four

Wormsley: Oxfordshire v Shropshire – Both matches abandoned.

Llandysul:  Wales NC 152-9 (Steffan Roberts 65), Herefordshire 153-5 (Luke Powell 43 not out). Herefordshire won by five wickets. Herefordshire 132 (Olly Walker 71, Adam Sylvester 4-22), Wales NC 58 (Adam Hines 4-13). Herefordshire won by 74 runs.

Group Five:

St Just: Devon 127 (Will MacVicar 5-28), Cornwall 133-7 (Alex Blake 51). Cornwall won by three wickets. Cornwall 94 (Ben Privett 5-14), Devon 98-7. Devon won by three wickets.

Wimborne: First match abandoned. Wiltshire 72 (David Scott 3-13, Connor Smith 3-13) v Dorset. No result.