Sandridge II vs North Enfield Cricket Club II (A) - Saturday 06th July 2024

North Enfield Cricket Club’s 2s fell agonisingly short of a third win of the season in a high scoring thriller on Saturday at Sandridge.

Chasing 195 for victory, Paul Duke’s unbeaten 67 led North Enfield to the brink of victory, only for them to fall two runs short on 192 - 4 from their 40 overs.

North Enfield were asked to field first and got off to a decent start via a fortuitous stumping from William Munt off Joe Murphy and a great delivery from Oliver Munt that nipped back through the gate.

The hosts then threatened to run away from North Enfield through an aggressive counter attack by their number four, but David Malleson pinned him LBW and regained some control for North Enfield, as Sandridge reached 72 - 3 at drinks.

A period of relative quiet after drinks preceded the inevitable storm, with the Sandridge batters initially steading the ship. Despite a quick double strike from Dan Gandy, Sandridge started to up the ante and motor towards an imposing target. Some destructive hitting saw the hosts threaten to breach 200, but some impressive death bowling from Oliver Munt and Malleson saw Sandridge restricted to 194 - 9 from their 40 overs.

William Munt (20) and David Brandon (24) saw North Enfield get off to a good start, reaching 44 - 1 from the first 10 overs. However, they both fell either side off drinks along with Fieaz Tazower (10), leaving North Enfield in a difficult spot.

Paul Duke and debutant Deleep Sathyanarayana steadied the ship though and put on a wonderful partnership to get North Enfield right back into the game. Both batters managed to find the boundary regularly and by the time Sathyanarayana fell for 45, the visistors were in touching distance of a memorable victory.

Duke passed 50 and the game went down to the final over, with North Enfield requiring 14 for victory. A drilled Duke four through extra cover saw North Enfield require four to win from the final delivery, but unfortunately Garry Orton could only manage a single, as Sandridge held on for a dramatic victory.

Elsewhere, North Enfield’s 1s heavily defeated Old Haberdashers thanks to an impressive all round bowling performance and destructive 50 from captain Ishan Tilakaratna, whilst their Sunday side also chased down a mammoth target of 240 from 35 overs with two wickets remaining against South Loughton, thanks to three wickets from Chris Gillman and a great effort all round with the bat.