DORSET 155-9 lost to CORNWALL 156-3 by seven wickets

DORSET were dumped out of the Unicorns Trophy at the preliminary round stage after a seven-wicket loss to Cornwall at North Perrott.

Cornwall elected to field first after winning the toss and were able to restrict Dorset to a vulnerable-looking 155-9 from their allotted 50 overs, Somerset’s Peter Trego taking 3-12 from his 10 overs.

Despite Trego’s Somerset colleague Max Waller claiming 2-28, Dorset were never in the hunt as Matt Rowe (53no) knocked off the winning runs with 13.4 overs remaining.

After being inserted by Cornwall, Dorset got off to a shaky start as all-rounder Trego caused havoc in the hosts’ top order, reducing Jigar Naik’s side to 50-4 after removing Luke Webb (11), Waller (1) and Ed Ellis (5).

Josh Digby (35) top-scored for the home outfit after rebuilding with Alex Eckland (19) - their stand of 31 the highest of Dorset’s innings.

When Eckland was removed by Lewis Goldsworthy (1-17), Digby provided late resistance with opener Ben Walker (30) who had earlier gone off injured.

Mark Wolstenholme (13) and Scott Currie (15no) further bolstered the total as Dorset set a target of 156 for their south west rivals.

Cornwall started brightly but lost Sam Wood (30 off 21 balls) to Brad Currie (1-26) before a 94-run stand for the second wicket between brothers Matt and Thomas Rowe (47) broke the back of the visitors’ run chase.

Waller rallied to take a late brace from his 10 overs, including team-mate Trego (19 off 16 balls), but the hosts eventually succumbed to the inevitable.