Berkshire open their defence of the NCCA 50/50 Trophy when they host Devon at Henley CC on Sunday (11am).
They defeated their West Country rivals at Sidmouth by five wickets at the quarter-final stage last season, dismissing their hosts for 253 and then recovering from 59-4 to reach 256-5 in 47 overs with Tom Scriven and the not-out Euan Woods both making 75, and Andy Rishton 57 not out, the pair sharing an unbroken stand of 108.
This will be Berkshire’s first Trophy appearance since 2017 at the Brakespear Ground, where they boast a good record, having won their last six one-day games.
The most recent of them was also against Devon with Berkshire recovering from 77-5 to post 234-9 before dismissing their visitors for 190 with Henley paceman Tom Nugent taking 3-40 to follow up his 25 runs.
Berkshire will be looking to put behind them the disappointment of making their exit from the NCCA T20 competition, being pipped for the Group 4 title by Oxfordshire on net run rate after both them and Bedfordshire had all finished on 10 points. Oxfordshire went on to win the T20 final at Tring Park last Sunday, scoring 170-8 to beat Cambridgeshire by two wickets with four balls to spare.
Devon will be keen to kick-start their season after a disappointing T20 campaign which saw them win just one game and suffer five defeats to leave them bottom of Group 2.
By Dave Wright
