HEREFORDSHIRE made an excellent start to their Unicorns T20 programme with a twin success over Oxfordshire in their double-header at Bicester.

The county side are in a group of five teams, playing each of their opponents twice on a single day.

And Herefordshire made the perfect opening with two wins as skipper Matt Pardoe led the way.

The first match was a real thriller with Herefordshire edging home by just two runs before finding their feet in the second outing with a convincing win.

After winning the toss in the first match, Herefordshire quickly lost Pardoe for just one.

But his opening partner Pete Burgoyne was in typically belligerent form and put together 39 from 37 balls.

Benny Ellis-Dabrowski (35 not out), Jamie Harrison (20), debutant Jamie Dell (15) and Tom Coleman (11 not out) all contributed double-figure scores.

Oxfordshire lost wickets steadily in their reply as Burgoyne (3-26), Jamie McIlroy (2-15) and Dan Conway (2-22) got to work.

But Harvey Eltham (50) looked on the point of leading his side to victory, before Pardoe intervened, running out the home top-scorer and then bowling last man Lawrence Block first ball to leave Herefordshire victors with two runs and two balls to spare.

It was a different story in the second game after Herefordshire again chose to bat after winning the toss.

This time, Pardoe proved unstoppable as he powered to an unbeaten 111 from just 62 balls, seven of which he dispatched for six and another eight for four.

His opening stand with Burgoyne, who was again impressive with 55 from 48 balls, was worth a massive 164.

Tom Hage (17 not out) then helped Pardoe to take the visitors’ score to a huge 203-1 from their 20 overs.

Oxfordshire never looked likely to challenge that with Burgoyne (3-18), Conway (3-28), McIlroy (2-28) and Hage (1-28) all picking up wickets to restrict the home side to 138-9.

Herefordshire are next in action in this competition against Shropshire at Colwall on May 27.