Hainault & Clayhall were beaten by Belhus in their latest Shepherd Neame Essex League Division One outing.

Put into bat by the home side, Hainault saw captain Zoheb Sharif (28) put on 81 with Sagar Joshi, who fell two runs short of a half-century after hitting nine fours.

Dominic Hurst fell cheaply, before Maruf Chowdhury and Irfan Shah followed to leave the visitors 144-5.

But Mousshin Ismail finished unbeaten on 50 from 79 balls alongside Omar Akram (38 not out) after an unbroken 70-run stand to see them close on 214-5.

And Sadair Mehdi struck early in the Belhus reply to dismiss Matt Doran without scoring.

It proved a false dawn for Hainault as Joe Joyce and Ryan Wells (29) put on 72 for the second wicket, before Joyce added another 123 with brother and captain Danny for the third wicket.

Joe Joyce became Mehdi’s third victim, having hit 14 fours in his 86 from 99 balls, and Danny Joyce followed without addition to the total, trapped lbw by Joshi after hitting a six and nine fours in his 65 from 58 balls.

But Belhus reached their target without any further alarm thanks to Max Osborne and Billy Winter as Hainault came away with nine points.