Petersfield II v Sporting Wessex: A YOUNG Petersfield side returned to the Heath after two successive away games.

The visitors won the toss and decided to bat first.

Sporting Wessex openers A Burrows (27) and M Burrows (52) took advantage of anything off line to put on 65 for the first wicket before Ed Bayliss (1-45) got a delivery to bounce and catch the edge of A Burrows’ bat.

The scoring did not stop as Nori (54) continued to score at about five an over.

Petersfield rallied and some tight bowling from Rich Stephens (0-15), Julian Evans (2-26) and Suraj Sashidharan (1-37) dragged the initiative back with the last 10 overs only going for 29.

Good bowling and ground fielding led to a run out as Fergus Evans threw the ball into the keeper and Khan was well short of his ground.

Sporting Wessex ended on 181-6 from their 40 overs.

Skipper Steve Gibson (five) and Nathan Barlow (one) opened the batting and put on 15 together before they fell in successive overs.

Stephens (19) and F Evans (24) looked comfortable despite some tight and accurate bowling from opening bowler Nabi (1-17). Lavers (2-32) picked up two wickets at the other end as he broke the third-wicket partnership to leave Petersfield on 48-3. Squires (13) and F Evans took the score to 90-3 before Nori (4-28) bowled Squires and F Evans in successive overs.

The lower order made a good fist of scoring the required runs, but could only get the score up to 128 before David Evans (eight) was the last man out.