WILTSHIRE captain Ed Young is keen for his side to continue the positive momentum they have garnered as they return to three-day action at home to Cornwall this weekend, writes JONATHAN LEIGHFIELD.

After their first Unicorns Championship fixture away at Cheshire ended early thanks to the inclement weather a fortnight ago, Young’s side made hard work of their run chase in the quarter-finals of the Knockout Cup against Oxfordshire last Sunday.

Chasing 229 all out, Uzi Qureshi struck 104 not out to see Wiltshire over the line by just two wickets and book their place in the semis against Berkshire.

At 131-2, Wiltshire were cruising towards their target, but once Young was dismissed, the wheels threatened to come off and only Arthur Godsal’s late heroics alongside Qureshi helped to save the match, according to the skipper.

Young said: “We did do our best, especially in the run chase to try and make it tight, but I’m so glad we came out with the win in the end.

“It was a really good result because, it was a used pitch and there was over 500 runs scored on it the day before, so we thought it was going to deteriorate quite a lot.

“I would have definitely batted first if I’d have won the toss.

“When Oxfordshire got off to a flier and had more than 100 off 15 overs. We thought they might end up posting north of 300, which would have been a huge chase.

“But the middle period was superb for us. Jacob Lintott bowled superbly to break open their middle order and to bowl them all out for 229 was great.

“We lost two quick wickets in the chase, but Uzi batted superbly.

“To be honest, myself and Uzi should have closed the game out, but after I was out, Arthur Godsal played a cracker of an innings to assist Uzi and help win the game.

“With Arthur batting so well, Uzi could just play exactly the same. He didn’t have to play any rash shots or take any unnecessary risks.

“Arthur allowed Uzi to anchor the innings and score his match-winning hundred.”

Wiltshire have started the year in strong form in limited overs cricket, but are yet to truly have an opportunity to test themselves in the longer format following the washed-out game in Cheshire.

Once they do take to the field, Young is keen to string together their from 50-over and T20 fixtures against a strong Cornwall side this weekend.

The Wiltshire captain said: “There were some really good patches in Cheshire, and we played some really good cricket at times.

“But over the last couple of years, we’ve been trying to understand how we play that good cricket for longer periods of time.

“Whoever does that tends to win these three-day games, so we’ll definitely try to take some of this recent positive momentum into this three-day game.

“Cornwall are always a good, solid outfit. We had a really good game against them last year, so we’d love to get our first win and start the season with a draw and a win to put us in good stead going forward.”