Barnack the visitors won the toss and elected to field first on a gloomy evening at the park where an 18 over a side game would be contested.

Openers Alex Ashwin and Ewan Williams enjoyed a lucrative first over with 14 runs coming off it. Williams then chipped one back to the bowler, removed for 14. Ashwin hit a glorious six over extra cover before hitting one down mid-off’s throat for 14 as well. Potter and Foster now at the crease together were hoping to rebuild but Foster was dismissed (7) in the 5th over to make the score 42 for 3 after the 5 over powerplay. Potter continued to push the score along ably support by Pete Hewat until Hewat (13) was undone in the 8th over to a ball which decided through lack of pace. Hook came in for a brisk 8, Weller “bowled” for 2 and at the end of the 11th over Burghley were left 84 for 6. Potter rotated strike well and hit 5 balls to the fence before he was finally dismissed for 36 off 30. Gilmour (8) and J Biggs (2) fell in the 15th over and Burghley were in danger of not batting the full 18 overs. This became reality when S Biggs was bowled for 1, leaving Ruffell stranded on 7. Burghley all out for 117 in 16.1 overs.

Burghley knew that regular wickets would be key to winning this game with a below par score on the board and a dangerous Barnack batting line up. Ruffell and Hook opened up with the ball, bowling tightly with the former grabbing a wicket inside the powerplay. Barnack 30 for 1 after 5 overs. A missed stumping by Foster off the bowling of Weller proved to be costly as Ghani was able to clear the rope on multiple occasions. Wickets were falling at the other end with Potter getting Amir caught behind and Weller getting Butt with a one handed caught and bowled, these wickets were keeping Burghley in the game but the wicket of Ghani was still required. Potter had some flashbacks to 6s as Ghani cleared the rope on back to back balls at the end of the 9th over. Weller continued his fine spell claiming 2 wickets the following over, clean bowling Abbas and getting Mohammed caught at point by a flying Williams. Ghani reached his 50 in style with a 6 off S Biggs and some may have got it confused for a hundred the way it celebrated. Biggs got his revenge clean bowling him the final ball of the 13th but Barnack still in the driving seat at 96 for 6. Muhammed and Hussain were able to steer the visitors home in 16th over completing a 4 wicket win.

They will go on to play Uffington in the next round, while Burghley will next be in action in the Stamford KO Shield in two weeks time (1st June) away at Whittlesey.

This match was sponsored by Caterfix.