Essex League: Harold Wood upset leaders, rivals also win

Harold Wood upset Hamro Foundation Essex League Division One leaders Epping with a four-wicket win at Lower Bury Lane.

Having put the hosts into bat, they held them to 233-9 as Daniel Carter (3-34), Rahil Zaman (2-35), Shahbaz Khan (2-44) and Taqi Abbas (2-48) combined well with the ball.

Former Essex staffer Mervyn Westfield top scored for Epping with 59 off 61 balls, with Abbas putting on 37 with Majed Ali (21) in reply.

Eesa Faheem added 90 for the second wicket, hitting 42 off 45 balls, with Abbas getting support from Khan (23) and Maruf Chowdhury (23) during his matchwinning unbeaten 93 from 94 balls.

Abbas hit a six and 10 fours as Wood reached their target in the 45th over.

Gidea Park & Romford got the better of Billericay, who posted 250-8 declared after winning the toss.

Matthew Bell (93) top scored for the hosts, with David Houghton (43), Raynard Van Tonder (38) and Heshan Mahendra (28) chipping in.

Hasitha Nirmal (3-56) and Shavawn Cunningham (2-26) had the best bowling figures for Park, who slipped to 18-2 in reply.

Mahmad Alikhail (27) put on 86 with Nirmal, who hit three sixes and nine fours in his 85 off 63 balls.

But Park fell to 145-6, before Sam Hewitt and captain George Rogers got them back on track.

Aditya Kumar (28) put on 53 with Rogers, who finished unbeaten on 43 from 63 balls alongside last man Ben Little as Park reached their target in the 48th over.

Ross Poulton (3-53) was the pick of Billericay’s bowling, but they dropped to third in the table as Fives & Heronians thumped Shenfield.

Khpalwak Zazai (5-55) was their star performer with the ball as Shenfield reached 206-8, having been 113-7.

Sam Bear hit an unbeaten, run-a-ball 55 with two sixes and six fours, after Usman Ul-Haw (34) and Jack Potticary (26) made earlier starts.

But Fives raced to a 10-wicket win in 17 overs thanks to a stunning unbroken 210-run partnership between Ben Yeats and Bradley Copper.

Yeats hit eight sixes and 10 fours to finish unbeaten on 102 from 58 balls, with Copper clearing the rope five times and adding 14 fours in his 105 from just 44 deliveries.

Upminster were also celebrating a successful run chase against Ilford, who chose to bat but were skittled for 89 inside 25 overs.

Aaron Beard struck four early blows with the new ball, as Beau Webster also had success, to reduce the visitors to 33-5, before Haseeb Shaikh (47) and Robin Bansal (20) put on 42.

Beard ended that partnership and finished with 5-34, before Webster (3-54) nabbed two more victims and Nehal Butt took the final two wickets from eight balls without conceding.

Pulkit Gupta, leading Upminster in the absence of captain Adam Wheater, made 38 in an 83-run opening stand with Webster (39), before Kiran Kullar and Tom Daniels completed an eight-wicket win.