Staffordshire claim a ten run win to go top of group
Staffordshire completed their National Counties T20 Group One programme with a 10-run win over Cheshire at Nantwich.
Cheshire’s defeat, in the first match that they were able to take the field, ended their hopes of another trip to Finals Day.
Shropshire’s double-header against Cumbria at Wem was abandoned leaving Cumbria still waiting for their first cricket of the season.
When Staffs’ opener at Nantwich was also abandoned, it meant that 12 of the first 15 matches in the group had failed to produce a result.
Happily conditions improved which allowed the second match to be played in full with Staffordshire making 176 for five after they were put in based around Liam Banks’ 15-ball 38 – which included five sixes – and Michael Hill’s aggressive 65 not out from 43 balls.
Will Perry led Cheshire’s chase with 72 from 53 balls before he lifted former Derbyshire slow left-armer Nils Priestley to deep midwicket.
Skipper Nick Anderson thumped four sixes in his 34 which kept Cheshire in the hunt but Priestley and former Lancashire seamer Liam Hurt kept it tight at the death.
Staffordshire, who top the group, sit out the final round of group matches next weekend and so will have to monitor from afar events at South Northumberland, where Northumberland host Shropshire, and Netherfield where Cumbria take on Cheshire.
