Wanstead captain hails brilliant day at T20 Area final

The Essex champions beat the hosts in a reduced 12-over contest in their semi-final, then saw off Swardeston in emphatic style to reach the last eight in the country.

And captain Joe Ellis-Grewal is hoping they can follow in the footsteps of last year’s champions Hornchurch and go all the way to this year’s final.

“It was a brilliant day,” he said.

“We were completely washed out on Saturday and were lucky it was at Radlett.

“They were supposed to have Middlesex v Surrey in the One-Day Cup the day before and the whole of the square was covered.

“There was one wet patch and we hung around waiting for it to dry out then played a 12-over game, which is a strange number of overs.”

Ellis-Grewal put Radlett into bat and saw Yuvraj Odedra (2-9) and Jahansher Akbar (2-19) nab braces as they posted 92-6.

And Wanstead reached their target in the 10th over, with seven wickets in hand, after Odedra (12 off 9), Tom Simmons (23 off 11), Robin Das (18 off 15), Kishen Velani (23 off 12) and Haaris Usman (12 off 9) all scored quickly.

“We bowled brilliantly, pegged them back in the middle overs, and 92-6 was slightly below-par,” added Ellis-Grewal. “But nearly eight an over, a couple of early wickets can change it.

“We chased really well. We had a decent start and kept the rate down. Simmo was great up top and Robin contributed, before Kish showed his class.

“We had good intent and we’ve got 8-9 guys who like to score quickly which is helpful in that format.”

Swardeston beat Twickenham by six wickets in a last-ball thriller in the other tie and chose to bat in the final.

But they were reduced to 11-3 and eventually dismissed for 70 in the 15th over as Akbar (3-9), Ellis-Grewal (3-15), Velani (2-9) and Zain Shahzad (1-12) shared the wickets.

Simmons fell cheaply in reply, but Odedra (23 off 15), Das (16 off 10) and Usman (22 off 15) saw Wanstead to an eight-wicket win in just eight overs.

“We bowled and fielded unbelievably. It was the best I’ve seen as captain at Wanstead and that was pretty unanimous,” said Ellis-Grewal.

“We had three full-length diving catches, just above the grass, a fantastic run out from the boundary.

“And Jahansher bowled a great spell. We gave them nothing and it was pretty much won after we’d bowled and fielded like that.

“Haaris played a few brilliant shots and it was super pleasing to see. It was a great performance.”

The Herons face Wimbledon at Basingstoke & North Hants on August 27, but return to the defence of their Hamro Foundation Essex League Premier Division title with a trip to Loughton on Saturday.

And they are set to entertain ECB National Club Championship holders Bexley in a rearranged quarter-final on Sunday (1pm), after the original meeting was postponed due to rain last month.

“The way it is, we’ve got three big weeks potentially,” added Ellis-Grewal.

“If we can beat Bexley on Sunday, the semi-final is the following week, then it’s the National T20 the Sunday after that.

“If we come through those three Sundays, we could be on for the best season in the club’s history.

“We need to show in the league and I think the change in format to one-day should help us. We’ve got 6-7 who can bowl and we bat all the way down to 11.

“They’re four games we really want to win, we can affect the table and the motivation is there to get four out of four.”