2's end Potten End's 18 month winning streak

Faced by the runaway division leaders Potten End, who had been unbeaten for 18 months, the Friday night WhatsApp chatter was muted. Potten End won the toss and chose to bat in order to get more of a game, having bowled out Shenley Village 3's the previous week for 32. The Potten End batsmen were clearly confident and Darshan Raval's wide long hop loosener was welcomed by Potten End opener James Pickard who swung wildly and toe-ended to Rachit Chawla at second slip (0/1, 0.1 overs!). Fellow opener Patrick Ashton joined him back in the pavilion in the 4th over as Matty got a snick to Zaf Basit (15/2). Darshan then ripped into the Potten innings, taking 4 wickets in 4 overs, bowling number 3 Will Hill (23 for 3), trapping number 5 Anthony Fenn LBW (27/4), having number 6 Jason Hawkridge caught at first slip by Andrew Teague (37/5) and completing his 5 wicket haul in the 13th over by bowling the dangerous Azeem Akhtar (25), who had been walking down the wicket and hitting Matty in the midwicket-long off area (46/6, 13th over). Jim Hart and Andy Lee set about rebuilding the Potten innings and the score crept up until Hart (9) was adjudged LBW in Jo Sheridan's second over (61/7, 21st over) and Lee was caught by Dave Flavell at midwicket off Sanket Shah (65/8). Another mini-stand was ended by Andrew Teague calmly running out Paul Lee (10) and Sanket Shah ended the innings on 88 by bowling Nick Sayle behind his legs.

Turning straight around, Village openers Zaf Basit and Lawrence Bird got off to a steady start until Loz (10) was unfortunate to be given out caught behind to a ball which he didn't hit (19/1, 7th over). Andrew Teague (4) supported Zaf, who was looking in good nick, but was given out LBW (35/2, 11th over). Rachit Chawla (4) followed shortly afterwards caught and bowled and Anand Verma (6) was bowled swinging across the line to leave us at 48/4 at tea. Wickets fell every three overs as we edged towards the target, Darshan Raval (5) was caught behind (59/5, 19th over) and Jo Sheridan (2) was bowled (62/6, 22nd over). Ali Javed came to the crease and decided to try a more direct approach, hitting 4 fours in rapid succession until skying a catch to point for a rapid 18 (83/7). Sanket Shah (5*) and Zaf (34*) saw us home for a very surprising but well earned victory by 3 wickets.

We were fortunate that Potten End were missing several players, including their number 3 bat and opening bowler who had taken 9 for 3 the previous week. The Potten End batsmen were clearly confident and their aggressive approach played into the hands of our opening bowlers, with Darshan improving on his 4 wicket haul the previous week to take 5 for 20. Once again our fielding was good, with no catches dropped and a run out. Potten made us work hard for the win and Will Hill also got a 5 wicket haul, with the middle order not really contributing greatly. Zaf Basit (34*) was the cool head anchoring one end and guiding us to a victory, with Ali calming the nerves at the end with some solid hitting. The unexpected win takes us up to 3rd place in what is turning out to be a very tight division, apart from Potten End.

Mill Hill Village II 30 points, Potten End 7 points