Slough chase down Harefield in the final over for exciting victory
Home Counties League round-up: Nadeem's men recover from uncertain start with bat to claim four-wicket win
Slough got their Home Counties League Division 1 campaign up and running with an impressive - and excitingly tense - four wicket win over Harefield, Syed Nadeem's side chasing down 237 for victory on Saturday.
After the washout of the first weekend, Nadeem's side travelled to Harefield and elected to take to the field on winning the toss. The decision made for an extremely competitive match that went down to the final few balls of the final over.
Harefield began brightly at the crease, with Max Harsham striking 64 from 98 deliveries and Thomas McLeod (47) and Nick Kelly (46) also looking well set to score big runs before departing.
Slough's bowlers were able to slow the run rate towards the end of the innings, with only Karanpreet Singh (27) managing to score with any fluency and the hosts were held to 237-8 from their 50 overs.
Nadeem switched up the bowling attack to try and unsettle Harefield, using eight bowlers including himself.
However, few were able to unlock wickets, aside from Syed Bukhari, who took 4-45 and Naveed Akhtar, who took 2-37.
Slough's response needed to be good, but they got off to an uncertain start with the bat. Mandip Sohi departed for six to Jordan McLeod (3-54), who returned to take Naveed Akhtar's wicket for a duck. That left the visitors on 102, however, they rallied well through the middle order, with Muaaz Ahmed (41), Mishan Silva (29) and Lesbourne Edwards (84no) driving them back into contention. In the end it was Lesbourne and Yash Lakhani (53no) who guided them home to victory with some excellent, applied batting. They made it to 238-6 with just a couple of balls to spare in their 50 overs.
The win lifts Slough to second behind High Wycombe, who comprehensively beat Datchet by 257 runs on second weekend. Nadeem's side hosts
Wokingham on Saturday.
Elsewhere, Wargrave managed to eat into their points deduction for a playing registration error as they beat Finchampstead by 84 runs on Saturday.
Neal Robinson's side need early victories this season if they're to climb away from the foot of the table, but this win means they're still bottom on minus 43 points. Datchet are their closest rivals on 10 points, and it may yet take a few more weeks to bridge the gap to other sides near the bottom of the table.
Still, this was a hugely encouraging start to the campaign and owed a lot to their magnificent performance with the bat. Having been put in by their visitors, they recovered from the wobble of losing Sulaiman Javed for 3 and Robinson for 13 to post a defendable 242-9 from their 50 overs.
A fine mid-wicket stands between Berkshire players Euan Woods (61) and Dan Lincoln - who scored a brilliant
115 from 111 balls - did much of the damage.
Both fell before the end as Finchampstead's bowlers got to grips with Wargrave's tail.
Liam Bulteel (2-31), James Woodford (2-38) and Samm Daniel (2-43) each took a couple of wickets, but the challenge had been set by Wargrave, and Finchampstead weren't able to match their hosts with the bat.
Wargrave's bowlers got stuck into Finchampstead's top order, removing Tommie Predgen for eight, Gregory Smith for a duck and Ben Moffat for five, Josh Lincoln 4-23 taking all three wickets.
From 14-3 there Finchampstead did manage to rally themselves, with Britz top scoring with 40 and Lewis Sharp making 24, but Lincoln's early wickets turned the tide firmly in the hosts' favour and Finchampstead were eventually bowled out for 158 in the 46 over.
Wargrave will be hoping to maintain their early season form when they host Harefield on Saturday.