BASINGSTOKE and North Hants hopes of making it two wins out of two in the Home Counties Premier League were dashed by a batting collapse that saw them lose six wickets for just 20 runs at May's Bounty on Saturday.

Chasing a modest Farnham Royal target of 183 and with 64 overs to get the runs, Basingstoke began well, Lee Nurse and Russell Droy looking comfortable in putting on 58 for the first wicket.

However, Droy's departure for 26 put the skids under the Bountymen's innings. He was soon followed back to the pavilion by captain Mitch Stokes, who played a loose shot to offer up a catch and become the first of Naveed Zaigham's seven wickets.

Nurse was the next to fall to the slow left armer, the first of three wickets in one over.

Kevin Latouf lasted just three balls before being clean bowled by a fine delivery, while Martyn James was trapped leg before wicket to be dismissed for a golden duck.

Overseas player Kenny Thirun holed out to square leg in the following over to leave his side struggling at 78-6, with their final two recognised batsmen, Dean Nurse and Darren Rouse, at the crease.

Rain, which had been threatening for much of the afternoon, finally brought the players off the pitch at 4.35pm.

An early tea was taken and play resumed an hour later, with Basingstoke needing to reach the same target in 10 fewer overs.

Rouse and Nurse seemed to be taking well to the task, moving the score on to 120 before Rouse was caught behind, bringing wicketkeeper Nigel Williamson to the crease.

He made five and stuck around well before falling victim to Zaigham.

Keith Harris and Nurse added a further 10 to the score before the cricket section chairman was dismissed lbw by Zaigham.

With last man Alistair Pearson now at the crease, Nurse was given instruction to go for his shots and he did not disappoint, hitting a huge six straight down the ground.

However, Zaigham had the last laugh with the very next ball, tempting Nurse out of his ground to set up an easy stumping opportunity and bring the match to an end.

Zaigham finished with figures of 7-37, while Dean Nurse top-scored for the Bountymen with 48.

Earlier in the day, Basingstoke had bowled with accuracy and discipline to reduce their visitors to 139-9.

However, a final-wicket stand of 44 between tormentor-in-chief Zaigham, who smashed 25, and Mo Amin left the home side with more to chase than should have been the case, especially considering a catching opportunity went to ground with the score at 150.

Stokes and Thirun collected four wickets each, the Indian paceman impressing with his economy early on, though his figures were damaged somewhat by Zaigham's late barrage.

Speaking after the match, Stokes said his side's batting display lost them the match.

"I am disappointed with the total we got," he said.

"I would like to think we were capable of chasing that down but, once again, we had the usual Basingstoke batting collapse early on. We gave our wickets away.

"That was only our second game of the season though and there were some positives.

"It was a good performance by Dean Nurse and our bowling was good, especially from our overseas player. We have to move on and look forward to our next match."

Basingstoke collected seven points from the match, leaving them sixth in the league table after two matches.