AARON Lee has hailed his bowlers for getting his Purton side out of mess against Marlborough in WEPL Wiltshire.

After being bowled out for 134, on what Lee described as a ‘good batting track’, the hosts set about dismissing Marlborough.

Fearing the worst, Lee was a happy man as the visitors were out for 112.

“Our score was well below par,” Lee said.

“It was a good batting track so how the game ended up 246-20 is beyond me.

“Their opening bowlers got a couple of early wickets and did exceptionally well, but that is not an excuse for 134 all out.

“We said at the halfway stage that there was no way we could defend 130-odd so to win the game we were going to have to bowl them out – thankfully that is what we did.”

After winning the toss, Lee had no hesitation in batting and while Purton found themselves 41-2 with openers Sizwe Masondo and Ben Collier back in the hutch, they recovered to 111-4 with Tom Bowler hitting 45.

However, the last six batsmen for the hosts could only muster 16 runs between them as they surrendered for 134 at the end of the 34th over.

Purton, however, ensured the wickets kept tumbling as Santhosh Iyengar and Keron Bennett-Thomas, on his first team debut, left Marlborough reeling at 15-3.

The visitors, like Purton did mount a recovery, as they moved on to 73-4.

However, just like the hosts, Marlborough’s tail collapsed in a heap with the final three wickets falling for just three runs.

“Our batting is something that we need to improve on,” Lee said. “But we bowled well as a team.

“It was two wickets here, another there, but Keron on his first team debut did really well.

“Marlborough didn’t really go after our bowling, like us, they were thinking if they could just bat the 50 overs out then they would win the game.”

Swindon slipped to their first defeat of the season as they lost by two wickets at Devizes.

Batting first after losing the toss, the then league leaders were bowled out for 111 in 37.3 overs.

Devizes got home in the 37th over.

Royal Wootton Bassett were unable to make it back-to-back wins as their 37-runs defeat saw the visitors Trowbridge take over at the top of the table.

After putting Trowbridge into bat first, the visitors posted 240-8 with Matthew Hopkins top scoring with 83, while Ryan Pieterson chipped in with a half-century.

Akash Sharma was the pick of the Bassett bowling with 4-55.

In reply, despite Jared McDonald hitting 85 before being run out, Bassett lost wickets at regular intervals as they were bowled out for 203 at the end of the 47th over.