WILTSHIRE won their second MCCA Unicorns Championship Western Division contest by an innings and 74 runs, writes ROY HONEYBONE.

On day one of the contest, Cornwall won the toss and elected to bat first.

This initially looked like a very good decision as the top four batsmen all made good starts. Goldsworthy 30, Harvey 31, Paull 40 and Smith 32 all looked likely to post good scores as they moved quickly on to 155-2.

However, that was when the Wiltshire spin kings took over.

Cornwall lost the next eight wickets while adding just 29 runs.

Two wickets fell to Tahir Afridi 2-41, after he switched from pace to spin and Joe King took 3-27 from his 14 overs. However, Jacob Lintott was the top bowler as in his 20.3 overs he took 5-53, as Cornwall were all out for a disappointing 184 in the 64.3 overs.

That gave Wiltshire a good opportunity to press home their advantage on the first day.

Openers Tom Morton 58 and Jake Goodwin 80 laid the foundations for a good first innings lead.

At close of play on opening day, Wiltshire were 235-5 a lead of 51 runs with five wickets in hand and plenty of overs to follow.

The following day saw Jake Lintott take his score on to 53 and Tahir Afridi hit a valuable 51 as Wiltshire took maximum batting points and closed their innings on 345, a lead of 161.

Cornwall appeared somewhat daunted by their task and began losing wickets with regularity.

Tahir Afridi , 8-4-14-3 started the rot with his pace which saw him take two wickets with catches from wicketkeeper Tom Morton and a superb, low down one-handed slip catch by Jake Goodwin.

He added another wicket when he turned to spin. Joe King took two wickets for just 16 runs from eight overs, one of which was a stinging caught and bowled which had the umpire diving for cover.

Lintott began with an leg before and then proceeded to hit the stumps on four occasions to complete his second 5fer of the match and seal victory with Cornwall dismissed for just 87 in their second innings.

This second 5 wicket haul plus his half century with the bat duly earned him the man of the match accolades.

Under normal circumstances Tahir Afridi’s half century plus five wickets or Tom Morton’s half century plus sterling work behind the stumps with two catches and three stumpings might have earned them the award, but Lintott’s 10 wicket match haul won all round acclaim from his teammates and spectators alike.

Wiltshire's next three day game is away at Sandford from July 21-23 starting at 11am each day.

Wiltshire team back row left to right: Uzi Qureshi, Brad Dawson, Luke Evans, William Harries, Jake Lintott, Tim Cowley (Physio).

Front row left to right: Joe King, Tahir Afridi, Ed Young (Captain), Tom Morton (wicketkeeper/head coach) Jake Goodwin, Neil Clark.