Wanstead captain Joe Ellis-Grewal paid tribute to his side following their latest Hamro Foundation Essex League success at the weekend.

The Herons claimed a three-wicket win at defending Premier Division champions Chelmsford, following key contributions from several members.

And Ellis-Grewal feels that is a positive sign, with his side sitting one point off top spot ahead of their trip to bottom club Shenfield on Saturday.

"Chelmsford are good at home and it's always a tough place to play, but it wasn't that bad a wicket for Chelmer Park," said Ellis-Grewal, who lost the toss.

"It was a strange innings by Chelmsford as they didn't really show loads of intent, they never came that hard at us.

"James Clifford got a good 50 and put us under a bit of pressure but we bowled and fielded brilliantly. I would've batted first so to keep them to that total (170-8) was under par on a decent wicket."

Ellis-Grewal (3-26) and Zain Shahzad (3-37) led the way with the ball for Wanstead, before Hassan Chowdhury (43), Zoraiz Saeed (27) and Kishen Velani (41) got them into a good position in reply.

Ellis-Grewal added: "It's never easy chasing that sort out target but we went about it really well and were cruising at 118-3.

"We were missing three or four of our normal XI but Zoraiz, who is only 16, got a score. Then we had a couple of unfortunate dismissals and lost four quickly to 140-7 and it was quite nerve-wracking.

"But 'Nav' and 'Dasy' didn't look in any bother and knocked them off quite quickly."

Naivedyam Dwivedi (17 off 21) and Jonathan Das (15 off 23) shared an unbroken 34 with the pressure on to seal victory and earn praise from their skipper.

"The guys came in and showed character. They hadn't batted much this season, it was a high pressure environment with the better bowlers bowling, but the guys were super confident and put the game to bed," said Ellis-Grewal.

"We might've crumbled in those types of games in the past. It was great to win to stay up there and that partnership of 30 won us the game. It's really positive signs for us."

Shenfield suffered a fifth straight loss, by 31 runs at neighbours Hutton, but Ellis-Grewal says there will be no complacency.

"Shenfield is never an easy place to play, it's a strange ground and we've had some interesting results in the past," he said.

"They've got a couple of very good players and there are no easy games in this league. We won't take them lightly and will need another big performance."

Hopes of success in the league's T20 competition were shattered in a last-ball thriller on Bank Holiday Thursday.

Having beaten Billericay by 61 runs, with Jahansher Akbar (4-37) dismissing dangerman Grant Roloefson for 91 off 50 balls, Wanstead saw Velani (74) and Yuvraj Odedra (54) lead them to 182-4 against Brentwood.

But their rivals matched that in a dramatic climax, with Harry Phillips hitting an unbeaten 23 off nine balls, and Ellis-Grewal added: "It was a great game of cricket and we were on top for 95 per cent of it but that's the nature of T20.

"It came down to the last over, they needed 22, a couple of good shots, edges for four and then needing one to tie.

"We'd lost the same amount of wickets so it went to best after six overs. It was very disappointing but that's the way it goes, fair play to their batter."