Zoheb Sharif

Loughton 196-7 drew with Hainault & Clayhall 126-6

Hainault & Clayhall skipper Zoheb Sharif is confident his men can quickly overcome the recent blip that has seen them slip from the top of the Shepherd Neame Essex League First Division table.

Hainault’s winning run ground to a halt last week and they were forced to settle for a draw on Saturday against Loughton at Oakfields to leave them in third place.

But Sharif, who returned to Hainault at the start of the season, has said that he was satisfied with the performance shown at the weekend, and sees no reason why his men cannot make a swift return to the top spot.

“To be honest it was a decent performance and we did pretty well in the field,” Sharif said.

“We only faced 39 overs which is what really hit us as they had faced 52.

“It was a decent overall performance. We bowled well. Everyone did their job and everyone did it well. Suleman Qadir did well batting with an unbeaten 62.

“We hit the ground running at the start of the season by winning our first four matches. We are looking forward to getting back to that on Saturday and there is no reason whu we can’t do it.”

Sharif won the toss on Saturday and decided to bowl and restricted the visitors to 21-1 as Mousshin Ismail (1-22) had opener Faisal Shah (7) caught by Ryan Hurst.

Farid Butt (86) kept the runs ticking over, despite the losses of Hamza Ahmed (4), who was bowled by Suleman Qadir (3-84) and Hafiz Yawar Afzal (4) when trapped by Sharif (3-63).

The runs kept coming as Butt formed profitable partnerships with Bilal Butt (32) and Amar Nico Akhtar (31) to take Loughton past the century mark.

Loughton had reached 157-5 after Sharif had despatched Bilal Butt and Akhtar.

Farid Butt’s innings was ended when Hurst caught him off Qadir and the visitors were within touching distance of 200 when their innings was concluded in the 52nd over.

In reply Sharif (13) got the first runs, before he was caught by Mohammed Hafeez off Salim Akbar (1-19).

Progress was slowed further when his opening partner Atif Zafar (5) was caught by Hamza Ahmed off Jamail Abdul Nasir (1-31) and Ismail (6) was run out by Nasir.

The arrival of Qadir (62) raised hopes as he formed a profitable partnership with Ryan Hurst (20), after Ashfaq Ahmed (1) had been caught of Bilal Butt’s (2-49) bowling.

The run rate kept ticking over, but time was running out and Hainault’s innings was concluded in the 39th over with 126 runs on the board, for the loss of six wickets.