A tough outing with the bat followed by a resilient effort with the ball as Harlow Four XI fell short to Newham Third XI.
Harlow Fours XI returned home looking to put last weeks performance behind them. Finally the coin fell the way of the returning captain Jon Allen for the first time this year as he elected to bat at the toss. Unfortunately, things didn’t plan out as well as we hoped. Wickets fell regularly on a challenging Spicers pitch where you didn’t know whether it would come up at you or just roll along the ground. Jon Allen topped scored with 25, followed by extras with 21 which sums up a frustrating batting performance where Harlow were bowled out for just 88.
A quick turnaround saw a great start with the ball seeing Oliver Allen trapping their open dead in front to give us the perfect start. Muhammad Asim then struck twice in two overs to leave Newham in trouble at 20-3. Oliver Allen was in great form with the ball using his pace, bounce and precision to really cause trouble for the Newham batters before he picked up two in two to really make the game interesting at 41-5. Chances went against us as loose shots and a few catches going down happened before we eventually found our 6th wicket when Oliver deservedly found his 4th of the afternoon. Unfortunately, the two Newham batters were able to take the game home for the visitors who wrapped up a 4 wicket win on Spicers.
A couple of difficult defeats to take but the team will hope to bounce back to winning ways when we welcome Fives and Heronians 4th XI to Spicers next Saturday.