Brad Neal and Matt Deadman hit half-centuries only to finish on the losing side as Basingstoke & North Hants saw their seven-match winning run – and probably their Southern Premier Division 1 promotion hopes – ended when Sarisbury Athletic successfully chased down a rain adjusted target to win by six wickets at May’s Bounty.

Basingstoke harboured outside hopes of regaining the ECB Premier League place they lost two summers ago after lifting themselves off to Division 1 basement to within sight of leaders Totton & on the back of their winning run.

But on a day when 15 Southern Premier matches fell to the on-going wet weather – almost one-third of the season’s fixtures have now been washed out - Basingstoke came unstuck and Sarisbury gave their prospects of avoiding relegation an enormous boost.

Matt Deadman (56), with his first competitive half-century since mid-May 2019, and Dan Belcher (30) provided the Bountymen with a positive start, but when Deadman perished at 112-2, wickets fell at regular intervals.

Rob Franklin (2-32) and Phil Jewell (2-37) each took two wickets as Basingstoke slipped to 131-6 when Brad Neal emerged to strike three sixes in an unbeaten 52 and push the total on to 216-8.

Neal smashed 17 runs off left-arm spinner Sam Hill’s last over.

An unbroken partnership of 66 between Ricky Rawlins and Rob Franklin in just under six overs saw Athletic successfully chase a rain cut target of 182 off 30 overs to beat Basingstoke.

Former captain Rawlins (47 not out) and Franklin (22 not out) steered the visitors to a May’s Bounty win that puts a bit of daylight between them and the two-team relegation zone, with Andover in rear danger of the drop.

Sarisbury were set a revised target of 182 from 30 overs - and promptly saw opener Chris Mottola dismissed by Neal (2-47) for a duck.

Jack Lovett (37) and Elliot Smith (30) put on 60 for the second wicket before skipper Josh Hill (36 off 28 balls) kept his side up with run rate.

Sarisbury were 117-4 when Hill was dismissed, but Rawlins struck two sixes as the visitors scored 17 off the 25th over. Franklin then blazed three fours as a further 14 came off the 27th over.

That left Rawlins to hit the winning boundary with 14 balls remaining.