RICHARD Morris hit a sensational double century for Berkshire but the batting star was quick to deflect credit away from himself for their 212-run win over Wales Minor Counties this week, writes Dave Wright.

“Obviously my innings helped, but this was more of a collective effort than an individual one,” he said.

“It was a combination of a lot of hard work from all of the team over the last few months.”

His 205 at Abergavenny on Sunday was by far his highest ever score for the county, his previous best being 124.

He faced 200 balls, scoring off 101 of them. He was badly dropped shortly after reaching three figures and also survived a very confident lbw appeal by Wales.

But Morris was at his imperious best as he spent 284 minutes at the crease, smashing five sixes and 20 fours.

“It was a nice flat wicket,” he said. “They bowled well in the first session in particular with the ball zipping around at times.

“In the heat, I did start to feel a bit tired, especially as I was involved in a lot of running between the wickets.

“When you have a middle-order with the likes of Jimmy (Morris) and Dan Lincoln, you are not staying still for long as they are fast runners.”

Morris was involved in three productive partnerships as Berkshire took control of this Unicorns Championship game, putting on 99 with brother James, though the skipper only contributed 19, 104 with Dan Lincoln (54 off 67 balls) and 122 with Stewart Davison, who made 50 off 69 balls.

Berkshire were dismissed for 425 in the last of their 90 overs.

The 29-year-old Morris came close to outscoring the whole of the Wales team in their first innings as they were all out for 224, with Chris Peploe taking 5-64 off 22 overs.

Visiting skipper James Morris did not enforce the follow-on, and instead looked to his side to build up a substantial lead to take the game beyond Wales’s reach.

Openers Ollie Wilkin, in particular, and Waqas Hussain did not let him down, smashing the poor Wales youngsters to all parts of the ground. They put on 154 in just 17 overs.

Hussain fell for 50 and Wilkin went on to make 90, which came off 59 balls in 76 minutes with three 6s and 13 4s.

From then on, it was quick runs and wickets as Berkshire slipped (not too alarmingly though) from 194-2 to 231-7 before the declaration was made.

This left Wales requiring 451 to win and that target became an even tougher task when Nugent struck in each of his first two overs. Berkshire were then met with some stiff resistance and Joe Voke (46 off 49 balls) and Sean Griffiths (29) took the total to 81-2 by close of play on Monday.

The visitors’ victory charge was held up on the final morning as the hosts took their overnight score to 151, a partnership of 141.

Peploe eventually secured the breakthrough by trapping Griffiths lbw for 57 and he also dismissed Voke the same way when the 18-year-old opener was just four short of his century.

The left-arm spinner got through a marathon spell of bowling, as did Ali Raja at the other end.

Between them, they kept plugging away, but were made to work hard for their wickets on another boiling afternoon in Monmouthshire.

Wales were all out for 238 in the 73rd over, leaving Berkshire the victory by a healthy 212 runs.

Peploe finished with 5-84 off 33 over for match figures of 10-148, while Raja had 2-59 from his 28.2 overs.

Following their abandoned match against Cornwall, this was the title holders’ first championship win of the season.

Their next fixture will be against Wiltshire at Falkland on July 2-4.