PURTON captain Aaron Lee acknowledges his side were beaten by a better team in Marlborough at the weekend.

After losing the toss the visitors were forced to field and they quickly found themselves facing a tall order with Marlborough duo Nick Crabbe and Fraser Gordon helping to notch up an impressive early total of 173-2.

That opening partnership set the tone for Purton with skipper Lee admitting his team were outplayed by the opposition.

He said: “We are disappointed, but we were beaten by the much better team there are no two ways about it, they out-performed us what can you do.

“They had a good partnership but we felt that we bowled well to restrict them.”

Zwelibanzi Homani and Pete Day added another 43 to take Marlborough to 216-4, the only highlight for the away side being Ben Collier dismissing three out of the four batsmen as the hosts set a target of 223 runs.

Purton began chipping into the total with Xander Pitchers run out for 26.

Tom Bowler went for 18 but Tom Whittaker, Sam Shelford and Sam Collier fell cheaply as Purton were all out for 152.