Defeated

Having won the toss Hadleigh who currently top the league opted to put Harlow into bat. Harlow got off to a steady start with Hafiz Yawar Afzal scoring 48 before being bowled, fellow opener Ahmed Khawaja went for 21. Two more wickets fell with A Jones and R Ahmed going for 6 and 5 respectively. The only batsman to show much resistance after this was Ubaid Ur Rehman Kiani who scored 61 before being caught. Mustanser Meraj scored 22 and Mitch Howarde 16 and that was it. Harlow where bowled out for a total of 187 off 45.2 overs. In reply the two openers of Hadleigh Paul Tibbenham(19) and Oliver Smith(10) fell early and then two more for a duck and just 10 tens and things where looking up for Harlow at this point. In came middle order batsman Sam Hadley(47) and Luke Smith(53) who then started to take the game away from Harlow. Try as they might they could not find the break through required and take the wickets to win the match and Hadleigh reached required total of 188 for lose of 7 wickets. Mustanser Meraj took 3-41 and Mitch Howarde 2-47.

Harlow Cricket Club 1st XI go into to next weekends final game of the season knowing that a win against joint bottom side South Woodford CC and with results in other matches going in their favour could keep them up. Currently sitting on 157 points same as fellow strugglers South Woodford with third bottom side Gidea Park and Romford on 174 points who have to play promotion chasing Billericay. With 25 points up for grabs for a team batting first and winning or 20 if batting second Harlow could overtake both sides provided Gidea Park lose and do not pick up enough bonus points in their fixture. If this happens expect to hear the Great Escape Theme tune blasting out from the pavilion at Harlow CC Saturday night.