Mildenhall captain, Ben Shepperson, was “really disappointed” with his side’s below-par display in a home defeat to unbeaten Cambridge Granta in the East Anglian Premier League on Saturday.

Newly-promoted from the Two Counties Championship, Mildenhall had acquitted themselves well at this higher level during the first couple of weekends, with an opening-day success over Vauxhall Mallards followed a narrow defeat to Norwich.

But the Wamil Way club were soundly beaten by six wickets at the hands of a Cambridge side who were good value for their third win on the bounce.

Granta won the toss and elected to field, and they restricted Mildenhall to a very modest total of 208 all out, off 48.4 overs.

Joe Reed made 65 at the top of the innings, and Shepperson scored 40 at No. 4, the duo putting on 91 for the third wicket.

But no other Mildenhall player passed the 20-mark, and the hosts were soon staring at defeat when Cambridge’s opening pair of Douglas Rice (70) and Ben Claydon (31) shared an opening stand of 82.

Michael Pepper ensured success with an unbeaten 59 at No. 3, helped by a 68-run partnership for the fourth wicket with Drew Hawley (30). The visitors reached their target (211 for four) at the end of their 48th over.

“Cambridge have won three out of three, but I don’t think they are a faultless side,” insisted Shepperson. “In fact, I’m really disappointed with the way we performed. I felt we could have given them a much harder game and they didn’t really have to earn their win.

“We were at least 30 or 40 runs short in our innings. Joe (Reed) and I scored a few, but we needed one of our top-four batsmen to make a big score. I also think our middle and lower order could have contributed more than they did, and we didn’t even use our full 50 overs.

“We bowled OK, but we were a bit flat because I think we sensed early on that we did not have enough runs to defend, because of the depth of their batting.

“Their openers nullified our bowlers, and dug in. But it’s a learning experience for us, and we are going to still play positive, attacking cricket.

“It will backfire on occasions, like last Saturday, but playing that way we will win more games than we lose,” added Shepperson.