Published: Monday, 15th June, 2009 12:00pm

Poor start costs Slough

by Patrick Corlett

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Cricket

Bobby Sher

SLOUGH were beaten by 63 runs at Henley as they were punished by the impressive league leaders.

Berkshire batsmen David Barnes (82) and Carl Crowe (52) helped the home side to 242-9 but Slough made an awful start in their reply.

They were 3-3 after just five overs and on the back foot against an opening attack of Tom Lambert and former Middlesex seamer Chad Keegan.

When the captain departed thanks to a rash shot it was 21-4 and they could not recover, being bowled out for 179 despite some resistance from Gheyas Khan (49) and Shazad Rana (31) who was unfortunate to be given out just before tea.

'We started off poorly when we bowled and started off poorly with the bat," remarked Sher.

'At 3-3 it is always difficult and then I played a bad shot and we were 21-4 and it was all over.

'We were only 70 runs away in the end and when there"s only 11 runs scored by your top four that"s not good enough."

He added: 'It was a bit of a funny wicket that they prepared, it had been used before. If you put it in the right area and ask the questions you got some joy but we didn"t do that. We didn"t make their openers play. When you don"t make them play you are giving them a chance to get themselves in and see the ball so they can get a start. Dot balls are pkay but you need to ask questions of the batsmen.'