Roffey captain Davies pleased to bounce back with thumping Middleton win

The Boars suffered their first defeat in the Premier Division the previous weekend against rivals Horsham but hit back with a dominant win.

The hosts won the toss and elected to field and Middleton were bowled all out for 233 off 50 overs due to a superb knock of 116 not out from Mahesh Rawat.

In reply, Roffey reached the target in 43 overs, hitting 237-2 thanks to Jibran Khan’s unbeaten century.

After last week’s chastening defeat Davies was delighted with his squad’s reaction as they produced a formidable performance.

He said: “It was nice to bounce back after our first defeat of the season against Horsham.

“I thought we bowled well in patches and the fact we chased down the total whilst only losing two wickets was very pleasing.

“We knew that once we got the breakthrough we’d be able to take on anything on our ground.“

Middleton captain Sean Heather (28) carried over his T20 form from last Sunday’s win over Eastbourne by hitting 20-runs (five fours) from Sussex bowler Stuart Whittingham’s first over.

He was however unable to add greatly to his start and it was left to Rawat batting at four to carry the Middleton innings.

Rawat went on to post his fourth league century of the season and all four of these centuries have been innings where he remained not out.

Tommy Davies (29) shared a ninth-wicket partnership of 110 with Rawat, which enabled Middleton to close on 233 all out in the 50th over.

Whittingham finished with 4-91 from his 14 overs whilst Alex Collins took 3-26 off seven overs for the Boars.

Roffey got off to a bad start by losing Theo Rivers (one) early to Davies (1-46).

A 54-run second-wicket knock from Ben Manenti (50) and Jibran Khan was ended by Matthew Reynolds (1-71).

However the Boars’ run chase always looked under control and they reached the target in the 43rd over.

Khan hit the winning runs to take his personal score to 100 (17 fours), as he and Rohit Jagota (86*, ten fours, three sixes) shared a third-wicket unbeaten partnership of 170 to see Roffey win by eight-wickets.

Davies added: “We bowled well for the first thirty overs. Stu (Whittingham) was bowling aggressively and then they got that partnership for the ninth-wicket but we weren’t bowling badly.

“Credit to the batsmen who got the hundred, he batted really well and calmed the strike and made it very difficult for us.

“It’s difficult to compare it to the Horsham game as the attacks were on opposite ends of the scale but it was nice for Jib (Khan) to get to a hundred and Ro (Jagota) to get a high 80.

“It was nice to put behind us what happened in the Horsham game and start our plans for the second half of the season.”

Roffey travel to last season’s champions East Grinstead this Saturday.