Ward stars as Norfolk stay firmly on KO Trophy trail

Skipper Carl Rogers was a happy man as Norfolk earned a comprehensive victory yesterday to keep their hopes of defending the MCCA Knockout Trophy alive.

An excellent second-wicket partnership of 146 between Rogers and Trevor Ward eased Norfolk to an eight-wicket win over Berkshire with more than 10 overs to spare at Manor Park.

A good performance with the ball, led by Paul Bradshaw, saw the visitors skittled out for 172 before Ward, with 92, and Rogers, with an unbeaten 56, steered Norfolk to a convincing success and two points.

Now Rogers' side need a win against Cambridgeshire at Clare College next weekend to almost certainly book themselves a place in the knockout stages of the competition they won by beating Staffordshire at Chester-le-Street, Durham last year.

And Rogers believes his side are in good shape going into the next game.

'It was a good performance,' he said.

'We probably would have batted first but we lost the toss and bowled and up front the lads bowled really well, Brads (Bradshaw) and Adders (Martin Addison), and that's somewhere we've struggled a little bit in previous games and really put them under pressure.

'We were a little bit disappointed as they got away a bit at the end and we probably should have had them out for 150.

'We came out and batted well, Wardy, especially, and I played the anchor role and everything fell into place.

'Those sort of scores, 150 or 170, you can easily be 30 for three and under pressure but we came out and never let them put us under pressure really.

'Wardy deserved a ton and could have probably nudged it around to get ones or twos, but he went to get it finished quickly and unfortunately got caught and bowled.

'I'm hoping next week if we go to Cambridge and win we go to the quarter-finals.

'A little depends on how other games go, but it would be nice to go there knowing if we win we go through.'

Rogers had the best view in the house as Ward was in excellent form with the bat, particularly off the front foot with his hitting over and through the extra cover area.

But the former Leicestershire man fell just eight runs short of his century when he was caught and bowled by James Morris as he tried to hit the ball over the top.

By then the damage had already been done as Ward had taken the Berkshire attack apart.

Rogers was mostly content to give him the strike, although he weighed in with several boundaries of his own particularly through the offside.

And although Ward fell short of his ton, Rogers notched up his half-century to see Norfolk over the line.

Earlier, they could have had an even smaller target to chase but for the efforts of Berkshire all-rounder Steve Naylor.

He smashed 95 as wickets tumbled all around him as the visitors struggled to 172.

The main scourge of batting was opening bowler Bradshaw who took three wickets in his opening spell when there was a touch of dampness in the wicket.

He returned to take a fourth and finish with four for 24 as Berkshire lost all their wickets with two balls of their allotted 50 overs to go.

SCOREBOARD

MCCA Knockout Trophy

Norfolk beat Berkshire by eight wickets at Manor Park in Group Four.

t Berkshire innings

DE Barnes c Goodenough b Bradshaw 10

CP Crowe b Bradshaw 1

JJ Mclean b Bradshaw 7

HD Mordt c Bush b Addison 2

SP Naylor c Borrett b Rogers 95

NRK Turk c Goodenough b Bradshaw 33

JC Morris b Brown 3

CD Crowe run out (Arthurton) 0

SR Davison lbw b Brown 6

S Wheeler b Rogers 5

TL Lambert not out 1

Extras 9

Total (49.4 ov) 172

Fall: 1-3 2-18 3-22 4-22 5-101 6-106 7-106 8-132 9-149

Bowling: P Bradshaw 10-1-24-4, MA Addison 10-2-38-1, CR Borrett 6-0-23-0, GW Walker 10-1-29-0, C Brown 10-1-32-2, CJ Rogers 3.4-0-22-2.

t Norfolk innings

CJ Rogers not out 56

H Bush lbw b Wheeler 12

TR Ward c and b Morris 92

CR Borrett not out 2

Extras 11

Total-2 wkts (36.3 ov) 173

Fall: 1-16 2-160

Bowling: S Wheeler 6-0-25-1; TL Lambert 6-0-24-0; SP Naylor 7-1-33-0: CD Crowe 8-2-29-0; JC Morris 5.3-0-38-1; NRK Turk 4-1-20-0