Lashings in Twenty20 scare

Big guns like New Zealand allrounder Chris Cairns, Sri Lanka's Marvan Atapattu and West Indian quickies Vasbert Drakes and Tino Best are in the Lashings squad as they aim to land the trophy.

A major upset had looked on the cards when the Lashings were restricted to 122-9 in their 20 overs this morning and Cheshire got off to a flier in their reply. They reached 40-0 off just three overs.

But the Minor Counties side's innings began to falter when Nathan Dumelow was caught off the bowling of South African pace man Nanti Hayward for 38 off just 18 balls.

Hayward finished with figures of 3-11 and Cairns 2-25 as the match went to the wire, with Cheshire closing five runs short of their victory target on 118-7.

Only New Zealand ace Cairns offered any real threat when Lashings batted, blasting 78 off 47 balls in an innings which included seven 6s and five 4s.

The extras column was the next highest contributor with 13, Aussie Greg Blewett with 11 the only other man to make double figures.

Cheshire bowler Adam Sydall took 3-4 from his four overs, but Dumelow stole his thunder with a hat-trick spread over two overs for figures of 3-30.

His treble saw Cairns and Rashid Latif fall at the end of the 18th over, with Zimbabwe's Henry Olonga out for one off the first ball of the 20th over.

Shropshire, who won the event last year, were due on after lunch with a side featuring the majority of the men who led them to a Minor Counties victory over Oxfordshire on Tuesday.

Newport's Rajat Bhatia was set for his first appearance in county colours.

Picture: Back from left, organiser Brian Jones, Lashings manager and ex-West Indies ace Alvin Kallicharran, organiser Toby Shaw; front, Shropshire captain James Ralph and ex-Zimbabwe bowler Henry Olonga.

By Chris Hudson