4th XI Vs Buckhurst Hill 4th

Following the successful run chase last time out against local rivals Shenfield, the 4th XI welcomed Buckhurst Hill to the OCG. With all three disciplines well covered by a strong line up Brentwood were confident of avenging the disappointing loss in the reverse fixture earlier in the season.

After losing the toss, Brentwood were put into bat with Barry Brooks and Tom Harries opening up. It was a rough opening period for Brentwood as runs were hard to come by and they soon found themselves in a dangerous position. Buckhurst opening bowler Joseph Oxlade was keeping a particularly tight line and was soon to be rewarded with a number of scalps.

The first came when Harries nicked off to keeper Nick Wright for 8 and soon after he had a second when Brooks, having suffered a hamstring industry, missed an attempted slog and was bowled for 16. Wickets three and four came when Luke Brailey (7) and then Ryan Pocock (9) flashed at some rare width with Brailey edging behind and Pocock floating one to point.

Oxlade’s 5-for was complete when Neel Sethi missed a full toss and was bowled to leave Brentwood 62-5. A rebuilding job was needed and Ewan Smith joined Luke Wells at the crease hoping to put together a similar partnership to the week before. They managed to push the score into three figures before Wells was caught off of Buckhurst skipper Mark Wheeler having made 16.

Smith and left hander Nirav Parekh then took a liking to Wheeler and scored freely off of him to move the hosts to a competitive total. Smith survived a close run out scare when on 49 when Parekh looked for a risky single into the off side. Following that close call Smith secured his half century before holing out to Chris Mitchell off of Isuru Gama for 56.

With the 175 mark reached, the push was now to reach 200 and with Parekh going well it looked achievable. As with any end of innings push for runs there were a couple wickets falling with Hobson (5) going the same way as Smith, ct Mitchell, b Gama and then Davey run out by Wheeler after some aggressive backing up. Parekh reached his 50 and got Brentwood to 200-9 off the 45 overs, finishing on 57 not out.

Brentwood got off to a great start with Davey and Wells bagging an opener each with Gama (0) edging one behind to Pocock for Davey and the dangerous left hander Gandotra ballooning Wells to Hobson following a brisk 23.

Hobson picked up the third wicket when Vikash Amin (6) hit one straight to Harries at backward point and soon after picked up the fourth, bowling Phil Mitchell for 5. The death rattle of leather on the timbers replacing the drum roll of Albert Square.

Where a lot of teams would drop anchor and settle in for the draw at 4 down fairly early on, credit had to go to Buckhurst Hill as they continued to push on with Ashley White and Chris Mitchell both playing their shots. One of White’s shots went straight to Wells at mid-off but the chance went to ground and there was a real feeling in the field that it could be a costly drop.

With White and Mitchell at the crease the visitors were looking comfortable but Brentwood were to fight back with White eventually falling for 47 to Daniel Ranns (caught Parekh) and Hobson picking up his third victim in Mitchell for 38. Confident youngster Oliver Slatford came in and was extremely positive scoring plenty of boundaries and pushing hard to turn ones into twos alongside Nadeem Yusuf.

The writing was on the wall for Brentwood and despite picking up the wicket of Yusuf (bowled Hobson), Slatford (49 not out) and Wright saw Buckhurst Hill home with 15 balls to spare.  

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