ANDY Carroll was disappointed that his man of the match performance on debut was not enough to prevent Wiltshire falling to a heavy defeat at home to Berkshire.

No Wiltshire batsman registered a half-century across the three days as they went down by 176 runs at Corsham in their second Unicorns Championship Western Division match of the summer.

Westbury’s Carroll, who earned his first call-up for the three-day format by team manager Neil Shardlow, took two wickets and scored 34 runs and hopes he has done enough to keep his place for Wiltshire’s next game away to Cornwall, which gets under way on July 5.

“It’s nice to receive the plaudits following the game but it is a big disappointment losing,” he said.

“It is a higher standard, obviously. I had to be on my toes a lot more and I knew I just had to go out there and bowl as I know I can.

“It is just a bit more intense in certain respects.

“I said to myself just bowl hard and be consistent.

“After a while the ball wasn’t offering too much, but there was still a bit of swing there.

“It was a good experience, especially for my first three-day game. A lot learnt and hopefully next time a man of the match performance with a better result.

“I would love to play some more three day cricket for Wiltshire.

“I thoroughly enjoyed my time in this first one and they have got a good group of lads there.

“It’s always good to put yourself up against higher class opposition, and the next game is Cornwall and it would be lovely to go down there and contribute again.”

Berkshire won the toss at Station Road on Sunday and chose to bat but were soon in trouble at 11-3, thanks largely to the efforts of Tahir Afridi and debutant Carroll.

Aided by some dropped catches, they recovered to 273 all out, with James Morris scoring 80 and Chris Peploe 59.

For Wiltshire, Afridi took 4-52, Ed Young 3-47 and Joe King 2-56, while they had reached 107-4 in reply by the close.

The first hour of the second day saw Berkshire take control as Wiltshire collapsed in dramatic fashion to 150 all out, giving Berkshire a first innings lead of 123.

The visitors then increased their lead with a quick opening partnership of 69 before they lost nine wickets for 108 runs, but a 10th wicket partnership of 82 took the visitors to 259.

That left Wiltshire 20 overs and all of Tuesday to score 383 but their efforts again crumbled as they were skittled for 206.