Portsmouth benefit after bowlers hit the spot to mark out path for important victory and beat the bad weather

Skipper Jack Marston was pleased with the way his team set about the task after winning the toss and playing some good cricket.

They knew they had to work fast with bad weather threatening.

He said: ‘I won the toss and decided to bowl first because there was a lot of rain around.

‘Fraser Hay (three for 40) bowled well up top for us and we soon had OTs in trouble at 50 for five.

‘Because he was struggling with his hip Fraser didn’t try to bowl as fast as he usually does.

‘He concentrated on hitting the top of off stump and put the ball into good areas.

‘When we brought our spinners on they strangled the life out of the OTs innings.’

Andrew Marston and Fahad Ahmed went for just 40 runs off their 20 overs.

The former, bowling his left-arm off-spinners, conceded a miserly 12 runs in his 10-over spell.

The hosts were restricted to 172 for nine off their 50 overs but the weather started to close in.

Knowing the game could be reduced because of rain Portsmouth knew they needed to score quickly at the start of their innings.

Opener William Smitherman made sure that happened with 40 off just 45 balls including six fours and one six.

The rain finally arrived and forced the teams off with Portsmouth on 70 for two.

With time lost the game changed into a 28 over game and thanks to Smitherman Portsmouth only needed to score 20 off 10 overs when they resumed.

Skipper Marston and Hay easily scored the runs required to keep Portsmouth on the charge.

Meanwhile, Sarisbury Athletic made it two wins on the bounce with a three wicket win at Andover.

After electing to bowl first Sarisbury restricted Andover to 214 for eight with Jordan Wright (three for 36) the pick of the bowlers.

Openers Ricky Rawlins (41) and Sam Floyd (31) gave the visitors a solid start.

Thomas Nightingale (66) and Josh Hill (43) continued on and Sarisbury won it off the first ball of the final over.