Lincolnshire County League: Market Rasen suffer Barton defeat

The visitors won the toss and asked Rasen to bat first on a hot afternoon, and as with other weeks, the home side got off to a good start.

Both Tom Boryszczuk and Will Bradford raced into the 20s, but with the score on 49, Boryszczuk was bowled for 24.

That wicket sparked a minor collapse as Rasen lost four more wickets for 43 runs and were struggling at 92-5.

Rob Chamberlain joined Dave Papworth at the crease and the pair looked to rebuild the innings in the hope of getting to a sizeable score.

The pair dug in well and put on 64 for the sixth wicket before Chamberlain was bowled for 30.

Rasen continued to look to push the run rate along as they went past 150. When Papworth finally fell for a well-played 41, Rasen were bowled out on the last ball of the innings for 181.

In reply, Barton got off to a fast start thanks to some impressive hitting from opener Elliott Drinkell who played very positively as Barton raced to 69-2 off 11 overs.

Although Rasen were taking wickets at the other end, Drinkell carried on with the onslaught, smashing 84 off 68 balls which included six fours and as many sixes.

When he was finally caught off the bowling of Paul Martin, Barton were closing in on victory with the score on 116-4 with half of the allocation of overs still remaining.

However, Rasen rallied and put the pressure on Barton as the run rate dropped significantly.

A well-played 35 from George Short helped Barton over the line as they eventually reached 185-6 with five overs remaining.

The defeat leaves Rasen in ninth place ahead of their trip to fifth-placed Bracebridge Heath on Saturday.