Suffolk left to dwell on missed opportunity ahead of clash against Cambridgeshire
Suffolk will go into Sunday’s Unicorns T20 double-header versus Cambridgeshire at Woolpit ruing a missed opportunity to get off to a flying start in their group, writes Nick Garnham.
Hosts Norfolk and Suffolk shared the spoils at Horsford in the opening round of back-to-back fixtures, the day after Norfolk ended Suffolk’s interest in this season’s Unicorns KO Trophy competition.
Suffolk comfortably won the first T20 meeting by six wickets after restricting Norfolk to 113-8, leg spinner Jake Foley claiming 5-23 off his four overs. Jaik Mickleburgh led the way with 44 as Suffolk won with 4.4 overs to spare.
The visitors then posted an imposing 162 for 6 in the second match, Mickleburgh making 36, Ben Shepperson 36 not out and his Mildenhall skipper Tom Rash 25.
Rain interruptions meant Norfolk were set a revised target of 125 off 14 overs under the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method. They achieved this for the loss of just three wickets with nine balls remaining, after opener Steve Mariller struck 63 off 37 balls.
Foley, who claimed his first five-wicket haul for Suffolk, said: “We thought 140 would be a really challenging total on that wicket after playing here for the last two days, so to get 160 was top work, especially from Rashy and Shep at the end there to get us up to a total like that.
“I think if the game had gone the full distance then we would have had it in the bag. I think it was still pretty 50-50 (after the rain) but in situations like that if anyone comes off with the bat like they had one guy who did, then it is game over and that is unfortunately what happened.”
The previous day Norfolk won by 14 runs in the Unicorns KO Trophy – the competition in which Suffolk reached the semi-finals last season.
Sudbury duo Darren Batch and Ben Reece took two wickets apiece and Rash sent down seven overs for just 16 runs as Suffolk restricted Norfolk to 200-7 in their 50 overs.
Despite Rash top-scoring with 40, Mickleburgh making 32, ex-Culford School pupil Jack Beaumont (29) and Shepperson (22), Suffolk were bowled out for 186 with eight balls unused.
Suffolk have added Ollie Bocking, who was unavailable last weekend, to their squad for the matches at Woolpit CC, the first of which will start at 11am.
After facing Cambridgeshire, Suffolk will have double-headers away to Bedfordshire and at home to Hertfordshire in their group.
Suffolk squad: Jaik Mickleburgh, Jake Foley, Alex Oxley, Darren Batch, Ben Shepperson, Tom Rash, Ben Reece, Adam Mansfield (wkt & capt), Josh Cantrell, James Poulson, Matt Hunn, Ollie Bocking.
