Marlborough crushed sorry Wootton Bassett by 119 runs on Saturday to leave the home side in likelihood of being relegated for the second season running.

In the process, Marlborough, moved up to their highest league position of the season of fifth.

Skipper Navid Ahmad won his 10th toss from 12 games and decided to bat. The Bassett bowling was tight and effective with Mike Walker in particular bowling some fine deliveries.

Ahmad and Tom Norris crawled along to 30 from 12 overs. Then out of the blue, as the pair discussed the situation at the middle of the wicket, Norris suddenly started to wave his arms in distress and fell to the ground in a panic.

A wasp had just stung him on his neck whereupon partner Ahmad rushed to help. Unfortunately, with batting gloves on, the skipper was unable to pull the sting out, but a Wootton Bassett fielder acted quickly and just pulled it out in time to avoid too much pain for the opener.

This was just the sting Marlborough's batting needed as the rekindled Norris started to look in fine form.

With Ahmad now attacking, the score moved quickly to 80, when Ahmad fell just short of a half century yet again with a useful 48, two balls before the 23rd-over drinks break.

Norris completed his fine 50 but was bowled soon after for 52. Marlborough's middle order stepped up a gear as Richard Turnell (27) and Pete Day (21) played nice shots.

Frank Whiting fell for a brutal 45 from only 30 balls, but Morgan continued and struck three sixes in his brisk and entertaining innings of 39 from 16 balls. Marlborough reached their highest league total of 258-6, with 178 of those coming from the last 22 of the allotted 45 overs.

Bassett's Chahal showed his ability with the bat with some good pull shots, but they were soon two down.

Walker joined Chahal and for while, the pair looked set, taking the score beyond 80.

Spin produced the key breakthrough as first Chahal (42) fell to a brilliant catch at mid-on from George Fox off Ben Head and a frustrated Walker soon followed.

Bassett continued to attack, but Marlborough snapped up regular wickets, including three stumpings for a grateful wicketkeeper Karl Norris to polish off Wotton Bassett with eight overs to spare for just 139 all out. Head (4-39) and Vinay Sharma (3-37) led Marlborough off the field.