CORNWALL’S hopes of reaching the NCCA Dojo T20 Finals Day later this summer were ended at the quarter-final stage on Sunday afternoon following a 52-run reversal to Berkshire at Wargrave.

The Duchy headed to the Super 12s to face Suffolk in an eliminator with the winners taking on the host county later in the afternoon.

After the East Anglian outfit won the toss and chose to bat, they reached 97-2 in the 13th over and looked set for a score towards 170, but the dismissal of Jacob Marston to Bryn Evans (3-33) changed the course of the contest as they were then restricted to just 152-8 from their 20 overs. Fellow spinners Elliot Hooper (3-23) and Alex Blake (2-24) slowed the game down superbly.

Cornwall were going well at 41-2 inside the fifth over but at 73-6 in the 12th were in huge trouble.

Step forward man-of-the-match Hooper and Helston wicketkeeper Billy Taylor.

Despite needing 38 off the final four, they timed their chase to perfection with Hooper’s unbeaten 65 coming off 50 balls, while Taylor made 33 not out off 25 as they got over the line with a ball to spare.

Cornwall chose to field again against the hosts but saw a strong Berkshire line-up rack up 174-7.

The home side were cruising at 92-1 before losing four wickets for just eight runs to Evans (2-34) and Ellis Whiteford (3-21), but recovered to set the Duchy a demanding target.

Eager to get ahead of the rate and utilise the powerplay, skipper Paul Smith promoted himself to open and he teed off to crash 47 from just 22 balls.

But his run-out at 55-2 in the fifth over saw Cornwall fail to recover as they were dismissed for 122 with 12 balls unused as Nilesh Bhandari (3-22) and Sulaiman Akhtar (3-12) shared six wickets.