Barnsley exited the K3 Dental Cup with a loss away at Clifton Alliance. They entered the game with only one recognisable seamer in their attack and it showed at the death as Clifton added 104 runs in the last ten overs to reach 250 and needing a performance from the bat that proved too much for Beukes’s men.

Unavailability and injuries left 17 year old Lucas Slatter as the sole seamer and despite Owen Smith’s best efforts to add to the seamer brigade, it proved costly at the death. Slatter finished with figures of 4 for 62 and Owen Smith swung the ball early but the barrage at the end left his figures looking worse than he actually bowled, he went for 57 from his eight overs.

An hand injury to skipper Boeta Beukes left him unable to grip the ball enough to bowl his allocated overs. The spin threat was led by Sean Whitehead, 1 for 34 but the pick of the spinners was William Nicholson with identical figures to Sean.

In reply William Chapman looked positive from the start before he hit a leading edge back to the bowler for a run a ball 17. Owen Smith was also positive with 21 from 22 before he was bowled.

The innings then lost its momentum as Clifton continued to ask questions of the batters. The majority of the batters got starts but the scoreboard pressure didn’t allow any of them to settle. Whitehead (26), Stenton (21) and Beukes (26) all made it into the 20s but no one could accelerate at the asking rate as the innings fizzled out to 157 all out.

There were positives from the day but Barnsley are going to need to be a full strength to compete on any given day.