COMPTON HOUSE 129 (5pts) lost to PORTLAND RT 266-6 (20pts) by 137 runs

PORTLAND Red Triangle came out as clear winners in the battle of the top two teams in County Division Two, thrashing Compton House by 137 runs.

Arguably their most important win of the season, the 20 points gained sees Portland leapfrog Compton House into top spot at the halfway stage of the campaign.

Simon Proffitt was in superb form for Triangle once more, cracking 111 in his side’s 266-6, ably supported by rapid knocks from Cameron Midgley (36) and Callan Laws (30).

That huge total played into Portland’s hands as they set a defensive field for Compton House’s reply before Matt Barrett (5-18) and skipper Matt Randell (4-24) did the vast majority of the damage in bowling their title rivals out for 129.

After the game, Randell told Echosport the win resulted from a “good team game”.

“It was perfect in terms of everyone performing. It was a good team game and nice to see some of the people down the order get a few 30s. The way they went about it, they scored quickly to get us up to what we thought was a good total.

“We said from the word go if we got around 270 we can defend that. 266 was a par score and I thought they would have got a lot closer to it, to be honest,” he said.

Randell revealed that he employed different fielding tactics than normal in opting for a more defensively-minded start to the hosts’ reply.

He said: “We set our plans differently to how we usually would. We knew with their batting line-up that if they got off to a flyer they could settle in.

“We went for a defensive field and we wanted to restrict them to 35 or 40 in the first 15 overs. Then we introduced our change bowlers and attacking fields and picked up a few wickets from there. I think they felt the pressure after we restricted them so well.”

The win affords Portland a 13-point lead over their rivals and, when asked if his side could secure the title, Randell said his team had put themselves in the “best position” to do so.

“All the lads are hopeful, obviously there’s still a long time to go. There’s 180 points potentially for teams to pick up.

“It’s a long second half of the season but we have put ourselves in the best position to win the league,” he added.