Beds blitzed by brilliant Bucks

Bedfordshire suffered a shock eight-wicket defeat to Buckinghamshire in the Unicorns Championship Eastern Division clash on Tuesday evening.
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Having been set 352 to win on the final day, Shelvin Gumbs struck a fabulous unbeaten century as Bucks eventually eased home.

Beds won the toss and elected to bat first at Burnham on Sunday and they made steady progress to reach 130-3 with George Thurstance (56) top-scoring before Bucks hit back to reduce the visitors to 216-7.

A flurry of late runs bolstered the total as Lewis Perrin (29), Jake Higginbotham (29) and Nick Barden (24) made valuable contributions as Beds were eventually bowled out for 284.

Bucks then made a disastrous start to their reply, losing Shann Khan for a duck to the second ball of the innings off the bowling of Colin Griggs.

That set the tone as wickets fell at regular intervals with only Jason Rance (42) able to offer any resistance in Bucks’ 163 all out.

Griggs (3-21) and Thurstance (3-56) did the bulk of the damage, supported by Higginbotham (2-29) and Andy Reynoldson (2-35).

That left Beds leading by 121 runs and they proceeded to build on their strong position with the bat as Thurstance (64) continued his fine match with a second half century.

Sam Johnson then smashed a 51-ball 69 as Beds declared on 230-7, which left Bucks needing 350 to win on the final day.

Despite the threat of rain, Bucks produced yet another dominant day three batting display as openers Khan and Charlie Macdonell put on 117 for the first wicket before Khan departed for 75.

Macdonell was joined by Gumbs and the pair continued the march towards victory as although Macdonell fell for 88, Gumbs was unbeaten on 132.

Beds visit Oxfordshire in a Twenty20 match on Sunday.

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