SWINDON skipper Andy Staff was left to rue the toss of a coin as his side suffered a nine-wicket defeat at a wet Marshfield.

While the County Ground skipper was unhappy at the state of the wicket at Broadleys, he was not prepared to shoulder all of the blame on the pitch.

Having lost the toss, Swindon were asked to bat first and while they managed to hang around for almost 43 of their 50 overs, they were eventually dismissed for 122, with Staff facing 31 balls for his three runs, while Liam Tucker scored 16 from 46 deliveries.

But as the damp wicket dried out slightly, Marshfield went on the attack and sauntered home with 28.2 overs to spare.

“We arrived and the wicket hadn’t been covered – it was greener than my garden,” Staff said.

“It was a game that was decided on the toss of a coin and not the cricket being played.

“The umpires will mark the pitch down, but both teams had to play on it and they executed their game better than we did.

“If you were batting first then you knew you were in for a battle to bat your 50 overs.

“We stuck around, but there was always a ball with your name on it.

“We know a few of the Marshfield players and when a player who doesn’t normally look to go on the attack blasts the second ball for six, you know it just isn’t your day.”

The defeat now sees Swindon slip to sixth in the table, but Staff isn’t overly concerned by what happened at the weekend.

“I’m not overly happy at the result, but the performance wasn’t too bad,” he said.

“We just have to dust ourselves down and move on to the next game.”