SHRIVENHAM cruised to a comprehensive eight-wicket victory over Chadlington on Saturday to register their first win of the OCA Division One season.

A highly disciplined bowling performance from Shrivenham helped restrict Chadlington to 177-6 from their 45 overs. Having elected to bat, Chadlington were immediately under pressure after Josh Kirk dismissed opener Dan Harding with the first ball of the innings.

Shrivenham’s tight bowling, lead by Will Snell’s 2-18, meant runscoring became very tough and the home side found themselves faltering at 62-4 by the 20-over mark.

Snell’s faultless opening spell, which included seven maidens in 12 overs, was the cornerstone of Shrivenham’s solid bowling display and the all-rounder was elated with his efforts: “Of course it is always nice to contribute to a winning performance, however this week was much more about a strong team effort that enabled us to achieve a relatively error-free victory,” he said.

Snell then contributed 42 runs to Shrivenham’s successful chase, sharing an opening stand of 90 with Shaz Khan (50), before Conor Taylor (49 not out) saw the visitors home with a little more than nine overs remaining.

It was the perfect response from Shrivenham after their humiliating defeat on the opening weekend but Snell seemed unsurprised by the comprehensive win.

“Today was simply an improved execution of our own skills,” he said. “Obviously, this was most evident in our bowling performance, where I feel that all of the bowlers contributed to making scoring difficult and took wickets at the key times which was crucial, “The ability in our squad is there to do well in this division, so it is all about how we apply ourselves in game scenarios. This weekend was merely a glimpse of our capabilities with bat and ball and there are still improvements that we need to make moving forward.”