Essex League: Gidea Park & Romford, Harold Wood toast wins

And Harold Wood and Old Brentwoods were also celebrating wins, at the expense of Billericay and Upminster, while Ilford and Shenfield also tasted defeat.

Put into bat, Park saw Mahmad Alikhail dismissed by Essex staffer Jamie Porter without scoring.

But Sam Hewitt (44) put on 112 with Jamal Francis, who hit 18 fours to reach 104 from 114 balls before his exit left Park 171-4.

Shavawn Cunningham hit 53 off 58 balls and shared 97 with Thomas Stone, who was unbeaten on 49 from just 35 deliveries – having hit three sixes and five fours – as Park closed on 276-5.

Bradley Copper (2-76) nabbed a brace for Fives, then put on 50 with Ben Yeats (24) for the first wicket in reply.

But that was the best partnership the visitors could manage, with Copper hitting 67 off 73 balls with a six and six fours.

Aditya Kumar (3-24) and Hasitha Nirmal (3-43) had most success for Park, as Will Chuter, Hewitt, Cunningham and Ben Little also had success to dismiss Fives for 179.

Harold Wood beat Billericay by six wickets after a fine bowling display from Shahbaz Khan.

After putting the visitors into bat, Wood saw Khan run through their line-up to reduce them to 63-7.

Maruf Chowdhury (2-16) ended Khan’s hopes of taking all 10 wickets, with Taqi Abbas dismissing Louis Barrell for a top score of 24 to end the Billericay innings on 107.

Khan finished with 7-52 from his 16 overs, before Dhruv Talati led the way with the bat.

The young opener hit 59 off 54 balls, including 11 fours, before falling to Robert Rayner (3-50) to leave Wood 92-4.

Captain Craig Perrin (20 not out) and Khan then saw the home side to their target in the 23rd over.

Bottom club Old Brentwoods broke their duck with a surprise victory over Upminster.

After putting the visitors into bat, they reduced them to 103-6 as Pulkit Gupta (43) and James Evans (29) made starts.

Harry Jenkins (34) put on 58 with captain Adam Wheater, who hit an unbeaten 49 from 37 balls as Upminster reached 205-9, with Rashid Mullazadah (3-36), MinHaz Bhad (3-73) and Muhammad Sajid (2-24) having most success with the ball.

Nehal Butt (3-64) helped reduce the hosts to 67-4 in reply, but Baber Choudhary shared 67 with Bhad and an unbroken 72 with Mullazadah (30 not out), hitting three sixes and 13 fours in his unbeaten 105 from 103 balls to seal a five-wicket win.

Mohammad Ahktar (4-51) was the pick of the Ilford bowling as Epping made 198-9 at Valentines Park, with a half-century from former Essex staffer Mervyn Westfield.

But the home side were dismissed for 153 in reply, with only opener Akhil Anil making much impact with the bat.

Anil hit a six and 10 fours in his 144-ball innings, sharing 50-run stands with Hamza Muhammad and Kanchana Dassanayake along the way, but was last man out two runs short of a century.

Shenfield were also left disappointed after posting 222-6 against Belhus.
Usman Ul-Haq (65), skipper David Hickey (65 not out) and Rahul Seedhar (40) made the leading contributions with the bat, but Belhus secured an eight-wicket in in 35 overs.

Max Osborne hit an unbeaten 112 off 101 balls, with four sixes and 14 fours, and shared an unbroken 145-run stand with Matt Doran, who hit two sixes and 11 fours in his 75 off 58 balls.

Oliver Castell (2-55) took the only wickets to fall.