LECHLADE centurion Brad Dial felt his side were at least 70 runs below par when they crashed to a six-wicket defeat at leaders Potterne.

The South African Under 19s World Cup winner bagged his fourth hundred of the campaign at The Grove, taking his tally beyond 900 runs for the season, as Lechlade were dismissed for 234.

Potterne then reached their target with six wickets and 43 balls to spare as the visitors fell to their sixth defeat in seven matches.

“Their ground is a 300-plus one no matter what the wicket is like - it is like a postage stamp,” said Dial, who scored 109 off 107 balls, hitting 11 fours and six sixes.

“We played a few erratic shots and lost wickets early on.

“I managed to stick around before getting out.

“We went there with no pressure, we had nothing to lose because of the position we were in.

“But in the end it was them who were under no pressure and they could take their time to score the runs.”

The visitors were without Luke Sellers, Ryan Higgins and Paul Godding but welcomed back opening bowler Michael Craigs and wicketkeeper Sam Burdock.

Captain Joe Breet won the toss and elected to bat but facing the best opening bowlers in the league, Dylan Higgins and Jake Roberts, they were soon in deep trouble.

After Burdock was caught skying a hook in the second over, three wickets fell on 32, including Breet, whose league season doesn’t get any better.

Freddie Martin (12) joined Dial for a partnership of 53 but it was the partnership between Michael Craigs and Dial which gave Lechlade hope as they took the total to 171 in the 32nd over before Craigs (45) was smartly caught and bowled by Ed Young.

Kam Shah hit a sparkling 32 in 20 balls to maintain the momentum but with more than 12 overs left the priority was for someone to stay with Dial.

The South African was finally last man out, bowled for 109, with over six overs remaining to leave the Manor Ground men all out for 234.

That total didn’t look enough on a small and fast scoring ground.

While captain Neil Clark was smartly stumped by Sam Burdock off Breet for 27, Tom Cullen (94*) and Sahan Wijerathne (90) put together a 159-run partnership which put the game beyond doubt as Potterne sailed past their target at 237-4 in the 42nd over.