DORSET captain Luke Webb praised a clinical performance from his side as the Leopards coasted past Wiltshire by six wickets at Dorchester Rec.
Dorset chased 196 with a whopping 17.5 overs to spare after sublime knocks from Sam Young (74no) and Joseph Eckland (52).
Victory handed Dorset top spot in NCCA Trophy Group Four, setting up a juicy home quarter-final with seven-time and reigning champions Berkshire at The Leaze in Wimborne on Sunday (11am).
And a delighted Webb could not find fault with the county’s performance.
He told Echosport: “Clinical is a good word. We just played like we did the whole group.
“We’ve got a side that when we play to the potential of our ability we come out on top more often than not.
“We nailed our skills with the ball and the bat was just a very professional job, so I’m really pleased against a side that’ve been flying in this group.
“It’s good to get the win and secure a home quarter-final.”
Wiltshire came into the game as group leaders but many felt the visitors were too conservative at the beginning of their innings, which eventually ended on 195-9.
Webb said: “We benefitted from playing here last year so we had quite good knowledge of what might be a good score and what we wanted to restrict them to.
“We were able to play with quite a lot of intent with the bat, which made the chase a lot easier.
“The way Joseph played in the first ten overs put a big dent in the score straight away.
“It made it nice for the middle order to come in and we’ve got some good players of spin, and it showed.”
Asked if Webb now fancied Dorset’s chances of going all the way, he replied: “We’ll only really be thinking about Sunday.
“The team we put out will be strong again and if it gets us to a chance to win a trophy, that’s great.
“But we’ve still got work to do. It will be as strong as possible, it’s hard to know.
“The nature of our side with players coming in from other counties and blokes that are professionals, it’s hard to know.
“We’ll have the strongest possible because it’s an important match.”
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