Perera and Scriven smash centuries for Berkshire

BERKSHIRE got their NCCA Championship campaign off to a flying start by beating DORSET by a massive 319 runs at Wimborne this week, writes Dave Wright.

They dominated the game from the start on Sunday, making 403-9 in their first innings on the back of two outstanding centuries from Savin Perera (112) and Tom Scriven (110).

Dorset were then dismissed for 179 with spinner Rhodri Lewis taking 5-43.

As is their tradition, Berkshire did not enforce the follow-on, preferring to pile on the runs to take the game well beyond the reach of their demoralised-looking opponents. They made 206-3 declared from 41 overs with half-centuries from Scriven, Dan Lincoln, both not out, and Euan Woods. This left Dorset with an impossible target of 431 and despite reaching 67 without loss, they lost their way and collapsed to 111-9 when they had only 10 batsmen.

Young leg spinner Jafer Chohan, making a big impression in his first season for Berkshire, finished the innings with excellent figures of 6-5-1-3, while Lewis claimed 3-14, Andy Rishton 2-15 and Tom Scriven 1-29.

It was Berkshire’s seventh successive Championship win over Dorset, with five of the last six coming by more than 200 runs.

Oxon also won this week by hammering Herefordshire by nine wickets to make it two victories out of two and so their clash with Berkshire at Finchampstead on July 24-46 will go a long way towards deciding the Western Division 1 title, although Cheshire cannot be ruled out at this stage as they still have three games to play.