In our most important game of the season, we arrived at Chingford knowing a win here would see us move ahead of our opponents and out of the bottom two.

Having lost the toss, we were put into the field first. Despite good opening spells from Lawrence Forde and Emilia Allen, Harlow could not find an early breakthrough. The Chingford openers played with patience and determination which was frustrating for us.

Harlow did eventually find two important wickets before drinks with Dan Knight and Sam Robertson making the breakthroughs that Harlow needed. After drinks, we began to find our rhythm with the ball. Wickets fell regularly with Lawrence Forde and Dan Stone striking twice while Emilia and Sam picked up a wicket each. A valiant effort after drinks reduced Chingford to 205-8 from there 40 overs.

Despite losing an early wicket in the chase, Umair Khan and Elliot Koopowitz recovered to put Harlow in a strong position. Umair Khan with 54 was the key at the top of the innings. When he fell, Amit Kushwara on 4s debut came in and lit up the innings with some sensational big hitting. He finished unbeaten on 48 from just 34 balls which included 4 sixes. Ayaz Amin joined the party striking at 240 as he finished with 24 of just 10 balls which was enough to take Harlow over the line with a 6 wicket win.

That win takes us out of the bottom 2 and with just 2 games to play, it is all to play for as we meet West Essex 4th XI in our final home game of the year.

Chingford 4XI 205-8 (40)

Lawrence Forde 2-25 (8)

Sam Robertson 2-26 (8)

Harlow 209-4 (34.1)

Umair Khan 54

Amit Kushwara 48*