Hurley conquered in Premiership derby while Green sustain the pressure
Hurley went into this weekend's Chilterns League Premiership derby with Pinkneys Green with renewed confidence after their victory over Braywood, however, a lacklustre fielding display saw them walk off on the wrong side of a 155-run defeat.
At least 10 catches were dropped as Green posted a formidable 299-6 total, with their skipper Jack Stemp scoring a century.
The hosts started well with early wickets; however, Praveen Sabba (66) came in swinging and rode his luck taking Green to 142-4 after 24 overs. Woeful fielding from the home side saw Stemp (103*) and Sheyan Patel (81) add 147 for the fifth wicket and it wasn’t until the returning Gautam Singh held a return catch in the last over that the partnership was broken.
Hurley were left to chase a daunting target of 300 for victory and, although they started brightly at the crease, with Gurpreet Singh and Waqar Saeed blasting 11 runs from the first over, Saeed then fell in the second over, bowled by Neal Vadher. Hurley continued to keep up with the run rate as Gurpreet and Jagdeep went for their shots, but both were lost within a couple of overs and, at 52-3 in the seventh over, Green applied the brakes. Kayani (41) batted sensibly but only Phil Ridgeway (13) of the middle order managed to stay with him for any length of time. Three wickets for Bandla put paid to any hopes Hurley had of winning the match and the best they could hope for was to gain some batting points. A spirited 18 not out from Gautam secured the second batting point but Kaleka returned to end the match with 3-10 in three overs.
In the same division Littlewick Green kept the pressure up on the leading sides with a convincing 71 run win over Denham.
Green managed a more than respectable 226-8 from their 45 overs, with Christie Green smashing 89 and Jason MasonApps
adding an unbeaten 48 further down the order.
Junaid Akhtar then excelled with the ball, taking 3-34 to wipe out Denham's middle order after the wickets had been shared around to check the hosts' early progress. Opener Chris Lupton managed 37 but Denham ended up well short of their target.
Braywood lost for the first time this season as they failed to chase down Chilterns League Championship leaders West Reading on Saturday.
Having won the toss and elected to bat, Reading managed 228-7 from their 45 overs, with their top contribution coming from Usman Tariq (49no). However, it was in the field that they really excelled limiting a free-scoring Braywood side to just 203 runs. The best of their bowlers was
Hafeez Ul-Wahab (4-15), who also took the key wicket of Mohammed Ansar (46). Braywood sit third in the table ahead of Saturday's home game with Great Kingshill.
Holyport's fine start to the season in Chilterns League Division 1 was checked by a dreadful 209 run defeat to Knotty Green 2nds.
Having seen their hosts put on an impressive 274-10 from their 40 overs, with Parth Adhyaru hitting 82, Holyport's reply folded like a soggy paper towel as they collapsed to 65 all out in 30.1 overs. Just two of their line-up, Adrian Mumtaz (11) and Bhavik Patel (29), managed double figures.
In the same division Little Marlow were beaten by 50 runs at Ruislip Victoria, failing to chase down the hosts' commanding score of 339-7.