A three-wicket defeat puts extra pressure on Steyning when promotion contenders Littlehampton visit the Memorial Field this Saturday. At the same time, Steyning's fellow relegation strugglers, Pulborough, who are nine points better off, have a crucial away match against St James, who are immediately above them in the table.

Yet, despite Steyning's lowly league position, they could and should have beaten Lewes.

When Lewes' No 8, Tom Sharp, was joined by Alex Ham, the home team, chasing a target of 204, were almost dead and buried at 124-7.

At that point the middle order had been brushed aside when four wickets had fallen for 20 runs in 28 deliveries. Andy Isaacs started the slide by holding onto a low return catch from his fifth delivery to dismiss Ed McGregor. In the next over, John Aspden edged a catch to keeper Matt Sewell off Ian Simpson.

Isaacs struck again three overs later by bowling Simon Allan, and in the next over Simpson bowled the dangerous Nick Seager, who had held the innings together.

However, as Steyning skipper Andy Stillwell saw his victory hopes slip away, he would surely have settled for a total of just over 200 after he, Owain Jones and Sewell were back in the pavilion for seven runs.

Nick Colley and the previous week's batting hero, Gary Hunt, set about repairing the early damage. Their partnership of 71 was ended when Hunt was run out.

Colley saw Ben Buckley depart cheaply before finding good company in Andy Ridley. They added 42 for the sixth wicket which proved the springboard for the later batsmen to accelerate. Ridley was in belligerent mood and hit four sixes and five boundaries as he raced to 53 off 44 deliveries. Simpson, who had helped Ridley add 34, and John-Paul Stewart effectively put bat to ball as the last four overs produced 46 runs.

Stewart and Simpson then posed problems with the ball as Lewes lost their first three wickets for 45.

McGregor was leading Lewes' recovery, which seemed to have ended when Isaacs and Simpson – the pick of Steyning's attack – swung the pendulum in their team's favour.

But Steyning's inability to take another wicket cost them dearly.

Steyning captain Andy Stillwell said: "Obviously, we could have won but I don't know if we should have. It was in our hands, and we knew what we needed to do, but we just didn't bowl with enough discipline.

"They were 120-7 off only 20 overs, so their No 8 and No 9 had 27 overs to get 80 runs, and just batted sensibly.

"Lewes are a good side, who are used to winning games of cricket, and we showed that we are not used to winning."

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