JAMES Wilkins blamed poor shot selection as his Benfleet team crashed to a seven-wicket defeat at Stanford le Hope.

The victory moved Stanford up to second place, while Benfleet are still bottom of the table after being bowled out for 92 runs.

“We were 40-1 at one point and that made the collapse even more annoying,” said Wilkins.

“We are getting a start and just collapsing. Earlier in the season I would have said that we are not getting the rub of the green but on Saturday it was just bad shot selection.

“We had nothing to bowl at and if we had got 200 runs then I think we would have been in with a shout because we always looked like getting a wicket.”

Benfleet were bowled out in 29.4 overs and the low target was impossible to defend as Stanford knocked off the runs in 17.3 overs to post a winning 93-3.

“It was good to get back to winning ways following our defeat to Basildon,” said Stanford captain Lee Knight.

“Benfleet are struggling a bit this year but it was a comfortable win for us. We shared the wickets around and Ross (Poulton) and Greg (Barr) got a couple each and I stole three at the end.

“There were no real alarms with the batting and it was good to get the win under our belt heading into our game with Old Brentwoods on Saturday.” Basildon & Pitsea were unable to make it a hat-trick of wins as Jibran Azam’s 169 helped hosts Oakfield Parkonians to a 122-run victory.

The number three hit 18 fours and four sixes before being caught by Basildon skipper Michael Gray off a Tom Poole delivery.

“Azam was the difference between the two teams,” said Gray.

“They were second from bottom going into the game and we were hoping to pick up our third win but he batted well and did not give us a chance.

“We did not bat or bowl well and we lost too many early wickets. We were really not in the game.

“Batting wise we would have had to bat as well as we can to get 300 but we lost early wickets and were never in the hunt, although Mo (Muhammad Ali) batted well to get 41.”

Lloyd Lambert (2-38), Dan Bedford (2-63) and Luke Daw (2-57) all took braces in an innings which saw Paran Kalley (37) and captain Jai Patel (24) fare best after Azam as the hosts scored 307-7 off their 50 overs.

Lambert (30) and Paul Singleton (13) were the only top seven batsmen in double figures until Poole (22), Ali (41) and Daw (15) launched a late rally that saw Basildon to 185 all out off 44.4 overs.

Baldeep Mann (3-27), Amit Kalley (3-39) and Paran Kalley (2-5) led the attack.