A SUB-STANDARD batting performance cost Berkshire Women dear as they were thrashed by seven wickets by Middlesex at Wokingham CC on Sunday.

Berkshire and England captain Heather Knight elected to bat after winning the toss for the T20 encounter, but her side suffered an early blow when New Zealand international Rachel Priest was caught by Maia Bouchier off the bowling of Ria Raval with the score on 13.

Alice Macleod and Alex Rogers both fell to Holly Huddleston as the home side crashed to 22-3, before Knight began to show her class in a 31-run stand with Sherisa Gumbs for the fourth wicket.

Gumbs was caught by Beth Morgan off the bowling of Naomi Dattani with the score on 53, and the fatal blow to Berkshire’s hopes came six runs later when Knight (32) fell to the same bowler, this time caught by Fran Wilson.

Amanda Potgieter and Carla Rudd did their best to try and take Berkshire to a semi-competitive total, but the former was dismissed for 14 with the score on 81 when she was bowled by Alex Hartley.

Linsey Smith was caught by Wilson off Izzy Westbury to make it 84-7, and when Hartley trapped Emily Gerke lbw, it was 86-8 and Berkshire were in all sorts of trouble.

Rudd added a couple more runs as she finished unbeaten on 14, but the home side’s total of 92-8 looked woefully under-par at the half-way stage.

Berkshire gave themselves an outside sniff off a famous comeback after Knight introduced herself into the attack early on, with the international star bowling Natasha Miles and Dattani to leave Middlesex 21-2.

However, Wilson (27 from 21 balls) steadied the ship while also accelerating the run rate, and by the time she had become Knight’s (3-22) third victim, the score had climbed to 63.

Middlesex showed no nerves from there, with Morgan (21no from 22 balls) and Bouchier (21no from 19) showing cool heads to hustle their side to an emphatic victory after just 14.5 overs.

The result leaves Berkshire third in the table with three wins and two losses.

They are in action again this coming Sunday when they travel to rock bottom Sussex (4.30pm).