Zain Shahzad

Woodford Wells 69 all out lost to Wanstead 71-4 by six wickets

Wanstead continued their perfect start to the season with a tenacious win over neighbouring Woodford Wells in a low- scoring game in the Premier Division at Overton Drive.

Skipper Arfan Akram’s men are unbeaten in all five games that have gone ahead this campaign, adding credence to their hopes of winning the top division, having finished runners-up for the past three seasons.

Akram won the toss and put the visitors in to bat. They made a phenomenal start as they removed the majority of the top order for a duck, with Zain Shahzad taking the first four of his six wickets for no score. Wanstead then held their nerve in reply and quickly reached their target.

“The low score was a mixture of both the pitch conditions and good bowling as we had had a lot of rain last week,” said Akram.

“There were many low scores in the league at the weekend.

“We applied ourselves to the best of our ability and bowled beautifully. Zain Shahzad was in great form and at one stage was 4-0 as Zain and Maurice (Chambers) – who was brilliant with the new cherry – had them 4-5.

“In reply we stood up to a lot of opposition. We were 39-0 and not in too much trouble when I was caught.

“You know how it is, it’s like the old London buses, there is one and then two or three follow. But Kishen Velani really stuck in and saw us through.”

Shahzad (6-23) swiftly claimed his first victim as he bowled Robert Leiper for a duck. Maurice Chambers (2-28) repeated the dose by having Peter McDermott caught by Shahid Saeed for no score to leave the visitors reeling at 2-0.

Zain Iqbal was Shahzad’s next victim when he was caught by Matthew Smith for a duck, before removing Thomas Corbyn (0) to leave them 5-4.

Chambers kept up the pressure and had Hassan Chowdhury (12) caught by Matthew Smith, before Shahzad removed his fourth victim for no score when trapping Rahul Patel lbw. Daniel Magin provided the only resistance when he top-scored with an unbeaten 35.

Yet the good knock failed to invigorate his team-mates who all fell for low totals as Shahzad completed his six-wicket haul by removing Pronob Roy (1) and Tom Clark (3).

In reply, Wanstead had reached 39 without loss when Akram was caught by Leiper off Magin (2-27) and then John Chambers (7) was caught by Mark Webb off Tom Clark (2-32) without adding to the score. Wanstead wobbled as Milan Patel (1) was bowled by Clark and Smith was caught by Webb off Magin to leave them 47-4.

But Velani (15 not out) and Adnan Akram (11 not out) guided them home in the 20th over.