PUDDLETOWN 210-8 (12pts) lost to ROYAL CHALLENGERS SPORTS 211-9 (20pts) by one wicket

PUDDLETOWN were denied victory by a single wicket as Royal Challengers Sports continued their impressive start to life in County Division Two.

Challengers still needed 16 to win when they lost their last wicket but managed to get over the line as Mandeep Singh (39no) returned an all-round match-winning display.

Puddletown won the toss and batted first but were forced to rebuild after losing Pete Phillips (10) early on.

Skipper Adam Barrett and the returning Adam Weir (33) shared 64 but the latter was castled by Karan Singh (1-43) having struck three fours and two sixes.

READ MORE: Puddletown beat Bere Regis Seconds by 81 runs

Kieran Knight (1) followed soon after but Barrett began to accelerate and brought up his fourth half-century of the campaign.

Together with Chris Clarke (26) the duo took Puddle to 175-3 until Sports hit back with 5-12, Mandeep Singh (4-32) taking three scalps and Bikram bowling Barrett for a well-made 82.

Evie Snow (18no) took Puddle above the 200 mark with a superb cameo and the hosts set Sports 211 to win, ending their 45 overs on 210-8.

Puddletown were in business when reducing Sports to 45-3 as change bowlers Rob Snow (2-31) and Dave Morris (1-31) worked their magic.

However, Bikram (27) and Vinu Venkidupathy (21) began to lift the pace until Evie Snow (1-41) got the breakthrough, bowling the latter.

Sports had stacked their middle order with big-hitting Tyson Luis (45) and he worked well with Bikram and Mandeep to put their side back in the box seat at 162-5.

The game turned when Barrett (1-38) had Luis caught and Puddletown devoured the lower order, Weir (2-37) and Phillips (2-24) bowling tidily to leave the Kingfishers requiring one more wicket.

Backs to the wall, Sports were anchored by Mandeep who contributed 12 runs for the final wicket, along with number 11 bat Duran Clayton (3no) to give the visitors a dramatic win.

Speaking to Echosport, Barrett said: “We batted first and posted a reasonable score that we were happy with.

“We bowled and fielded really well, we just failed to pick up wickets at key times.”

When asked if he felt key decisions went against his side, Barrett replied: “That’s a good way of wording it.

“We’ve got to do the best we can. We took nine wickets and 12 points out of the game, that’s obviously a positive.

“I’m very disappointed we didn’t pick up that win. I think 99 times out of 100 we would’ve gone on to win that game if we’d had a bit more luck.”

Puddletown Seconds lost by eight wickets to Swanage Seconds in County Division Five.