Much improved Hurley aren't quite able to force victory against The Lee
A much-improved performance by Hurley saw them get the better of Saturday's draw against The Lee in the Chilterns Premiership.
Hurley were put into bat by the visiting skipper Mike Harris but the opening pair of Prabinder Singh and Gurpreet Singh started in positive fashion, with Prabinder (27) playing some classy strokes and Gurprett (15) going for a more rumbustuous approach.
The partnership was broken up after reaching 45 when Gurpreet holed out to Henry Quinn off the bowling of Matt Line, while Prabinder was clean bowled by the same bowler with the score on 862 in the 15th over.
Jagdeep Singh then found the form which has eluded him so far this season, smashing a blistering 84 from 63 deliveries before edging to the keeper to give Line his third victory.
At 127 for 3 after twenty overs, the hosts were relishing the prospect of posting a large total and a possible declaration, but a middle order collapse saw three wickets fall on 162. Essex returned to dismiss Manpreet (16) and
Mike Walton (6) leaving Hurley still short of a fifth batting point with a possible six overs remaining.
Muhammad Adnan (31*) and Amaan Mahmood (1*) ensured they batted out the remaining overs to post a competitive 224-9
The visitors’ chase suffered an early setback when Harris (7) was - a little unfortunately - judged lbw to Manpreet. The same could not be said for Bhatti who survived an edge that flew to slip via the keeper and just evaded the diving attempt of Phil Ridgeway before surviving a second lbw shout to make 24 before holing out off Saeed Aimal.
With The Lee keeping up with the required rate, Gul turned to Ridgeway to put the brakes on, and he had Chaudry well caught by Manpreet.
Henry Quinn played a very classy knock reaching a chanceless 50 before a cross-batted heave to a Ridgeway slower ball saw him lose his leg-stump.
At 96 for 4, the visitors appeared to give up hopes of victory and Neil Hollister and Mark Channer dug in to frustrate the Hurley bowlers, taking the score to 140 with two overs remaining. Hollister's patience eventually waned, and Ridgeway tempted him into a rash shot that was caught by Prabinder. The final ball of the innings saw Lawson edge to slip off Jagdeep, and Ridgeway took the catch to give Hurley another bowling point.
In summary, a good all-round performance by Hurley despite not being able to force the win.