Wanstead 159 beat Chelmsford 131 by 28 runs

A superb bowling effort ensured Wanstead maintained their impressive run after a 28-run success over Chelmsford.

Wanstead batted first and could only make 159, and if it wasn’t for Milan Patel’s 60 from 58 balls then it could have been a lot worse.

But with all four bowlers chipping in with wickets in the reply for Arfan Akram’s team, the skipper believes the low score focused his team even more than usual.

“When you score 300 it is easy to expect to win and your standards can drop as a result,” he said.

“Before we took to the field we had the belief we could maybe do it, but when we had them 18-4 we knew we just had to finish the job, and we had the confidence to do so.”

Apart for Patel’s 60 on a difficult batting wicket, only four other batsmen made double figures with openers Akram (29) and John Chambers (20) getting them off to a good start, and were at one stage 122-1 before they slumped to lose nine wickets for just 37 runs.

“We should have at least posted 200 which would have definitely been a winnable score,” added Akram.

“But the fielding and bowling was top drawer, we took all our chances in the field to give us a fantastic win.”

In reply opening bowlers Zain Shahzad and Shahid Saeed helped leave Chelmsford 18-4.

Robert Hayto rescued the home side with a knock of 55 to effectively level things up before Merv Westfield took his wicket to leave Chelmsford at 79-6.

Paul Jones (18) and Mark Drain (21) sparked a mini revival for the hosts, but Mo Fayyaz-Khan continued his excellent season with the ball as he quickly dismissed the latter and put Wanstead back in the front seat, completing his 15 overs with 4-29, before taking the final wicket of Jones to sealthe victory.

Wanstead were hoping to progress in the Conference Cup on Sunday against Ealing, but the match was cancelled due to the rain, and now get back to league action on Saturday against Woodford Wells before playing Brondesbury in the National Cup in another important weekend for the Overton Drive team.

“Winning breeds a lot of confidence and in that respect having the Ealing game called off was disappointing,” added Akram.

“But it is important to keep our feet on the ground and not get too carried away for what are another two big games.”