CRAIG Haupt scored an unbeaten century as Oxfordshire beat Buckinghamshire by six wickets in a one-day friendly at a bitterly cold Aston Rowant yesterday.

The big Banbury left-hander made 100 before retiring hurt with an elbow injury as Oxon successfully chased down the Bucks total of 204 with more than 12 overs to spare.

The home county were on top after winning the toss and immediately reducing Bucks to 13-3, a position from which they never truly recovered.

Tom Geeson-Brown found a purler to trap former England one-day star Mal Loye lbw third ball. A run out compounded Bucks’ problems and when two more wickets left the visitors at 73-5, an early finished looked likely.

Joel Pope, with a fluent 66 of 69 balls, and skipper Jason Harrison added 59 before the latter fell victim to a front-foot lbw decision – a trend that is likely to increase following the Hawkeye technology.

Tom Helm’s 39 guided Bucks to 204 all out, with 2.5 of their 50-over allocation left unbowled.

Nathan Hawkes picked up three wickets with his seamers while left-arm spinner Luke Ryan proved the most economical.

With a flat pitch and a fast outfield, this total was 80 runs short of par, but Oxon made a poor start, losing Richard Kaufman and Alex Jewell cheaply.

Haupt, who survived a steepling chance when on seven, and Hawkes then produced the match-winning third-wicket stand of 163 at a run-a-ball.

Hawkes, who struck 17 off an over from Vikram Banerjee’s left-arm spin, departed for 71 made off 63 balls with ten fours and a six.

Haupt reached his century off 113 balls, with 13 fours and a six to take Oxon to the brink of a comfortable win.

This was an encouraging display for Oxon, before they open their Minor Counties Trophy match against Cornwall at St Austell next Sunday, when Rob Williams, Daniel Rowe and Chad Keegan will be available for selection.