A FIRST win of the season still eludes Basingstoke and North Hants Cricket Club after newly-promoted Hemel Hempstead inflicted a 33-run defeat on Saturday.

The home side in the top-flight Home Counties League encounter in Hertfordshire posted an impressive 278-7 in 66 overs, with Hemish Ilangaratne scoring 75 and Martin Wright 70 not out.

Chasing the target in 54 overs, the visitors' top order struggled until Scott Dyer came in at number five to steady the innings en route to an excellent 83.

However, at 90-6, the match looked beyond Basingstoke. But some disciplined batting from Dyer, Keith Harris and Chris Chandler took the May's Bounty side to within an over of a draw.

That narrowly failed to materialise when Harris was trapped lbw but Basingstoke's captain was in no doubt it was his side's poor batting that cost them a result.

He said: "We were hoping to get our first win as a confidence booster, but we didn't have a lot of luck early on and they posted a reasonable score without losing wickets.

"270 was a hard total to chase but we kept at it. There were always going to be runs in the wicket, though. If we had batted properly, we could have got a result.

"That said, when you are 90-6 and chasing 270, options are running out.

"Scott Dyer held the innings together, supported well by Chris Chandler and myself. We were concentrating on getting to within 30-40 of their total and taking it from there, but then Scott was unlucky with his lbw.

"Then we tried to hold on for the draw only to fall short in the penultimate over, which was frustrating.

"I know every one in the team can bat, as was shown by our numbers nine and 10 scoring nearly 40 each.

"But we cannot rely on that and, as soon as we stop batting on an individual basis, we will get that first win."

Now bottom of division one after four games without a win, Basingstoke face Henley, placed immediately above them but with the same record, next Saturday at May's Bounty.