Gary Freear’s side are in a much better position than they were at this stage last season when Nassington held a much healthier lead and went on to take the title.

Freear said: "It was an interesting game to say the least. It was very nice to win at March as it is a long time since we have done it. In the end we nicked it, but we really they chucked it away.

“But with only five wickets the pressure was always on the batsmen even though they needed only 82 runs off 18 overs. I knew if we got a wicket when Shardul and Seymour were batting the pressure would be on the two young batsmen coming in and that is what happened.

“We are in a good position in the league and if we can erase the two silly defeats we have had so far we should be so be thereabouts at the end of the season. We play one of those team Khalsa this week away.”

Once again it was the March batting line-up’s mad moments that proved costly when they fell just five runs short with seven balls still to come.

Wisbech batted first and lost opener Ben Allsop very early on but the next five batsmen all made good contributions. Damien Coad 37, Gary Freear 34, James Williams 43, Henry Rosier 33 and Simon Freear 29 kept the scoreboard ticking over and were 180 for five at one stage. They reached 203 for nine wickets off 47 overs and it would have been more but for Kurt Cunningham taking five wickets for 35 runs.

The rain played its part with a period of 24 overs lost and March were set a revised target. Initially March were set 118 runs to win, with seven wickets available in 26 overs. But the rain came again and the target was subsequently revised for a second time.They were then forced to concede five wickets and 31 overs to be left with a target of 82 off 18 overs.

They started well enough with Andy Mills and Steve Seymour building quickly with singles with a target of just over four runs and over.

They looked like they had got home when Seymour 32 was joined by Shardul Brahmbhatt but he holed out to deep square leg after scoring just 12 and then they lost the plot somewhat when both Tommy Howgego and Kurt Cunningham made poor decisions to lose their wickets.

With only five runs needed and seven balls left it was a game March should have won and they need to quickly get out of this rut as they sink 41 points behind the leaders and their title hopes looking very slim indeed.

March skipper Chris Ringham said: “Rain-affected games usually favour the team batting second and we should have won the game. We were cruising when Shardul went for the big slog and was caught and then we lost two more poor wickets.

“We are in a bit of mess at the moment and are lacking in confidence when we are batting.