WILTSHIRE team boss Neil Shardlow was dejected as his county side’s winless run continued when they slipped to a 51-run defeat against Cornwall.
Wiltshire suffered a second-innings batting collapse at Corsham, crumbling to 150 all out after being set a target of 201 to win.
“It was really disappointing and I couldn’t believe that we’d not won the game,” said Shardlow.
“We’d effectively bossed the game for the first two days up until tea but, after that, we let Cornwall back in to the game.
“We took our foot off the pedal and it was that complacency that let us down in the end, which is really frustrating.
“It’s a knockback to our confidence but we’ve got to do our best to try and move on.”
Cornwall won the toss on day one and were bowled out for 211.
Only Christian Purchase with 81 made any real contribution as Tahir Afridi took 6-63 – his third consecutive five-wicket haul.
After losing Jayden Levitt early, Ed Kilbee (125) and Richie Underdown (61) put on 147 for the second wicket and at close on the first day, Wiltshire were level with Cornwall at 211 for the loss of only two wickets.
However, they failed to bat out the overs on day two and were all out for 362.
Michael Coles (33) and Ashur Morrison (47*) were the main contributors and the lead was 151 runs, former Pakistan international Shakil Ahmed taking 7-84.
After lunch Cornwall started well with Matt Robins scoring 53 but they collapsed and at tea were 123-6, still 28 runs behind.
The whole match changed as Wiltshire’s bowling and fielding became sloppy and several catches were dropped.
A partnership for the seventh wicket of 144 between Purchase (90) and Alex Smeeth (99) pushed Cornwall 150 runs ahead with eight wickets down.
Cornwall added another 50 runs, totalling 352, leaving Wiltshire about 70 overs to score 201 to win. Tom Bowler took 4-78.
An aggressive start against the seamers saw an opening stand of 55 but when the spinners came on the whole match changed as Wiltshire slumped to 81-8.
Big hitting by Ashur Morrison (24) and Tahir Afridi (44) took the score on, but Wiltshire had no answer to left-arm spinner Neil Ivamy, who took 7-38.
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