Watford Town Cricket Club match reports for June 27/28

Town were grateful to win the toss and make full use of an excellent Stortford pitch, reaching 300 runs for the loss of only three wickets, by the 45th of their 50 overs. Leading the way was Gaurav Shinagare, making his first big impact since returning from university, with a score of 101 off 86 balls, including 12 fours and 5 sixes. Not far behind him was Suhaib Ahmad, with 91, followed by skipper Riahn Pieris, who is currently in great form and scored 79.

In spite of the loss of late wickets, the final total of 334 for 7 was still seen as a very challenging target for the hosts. The lost three wickets before the score reached 80, to boost Town's confidence, but a stand of 106 followed, principally through wicket keeper, Ben Furrer, who survived a chance on 23 and went on to score 77. Both batsmen fell within six runs, however, to hand the initiative back to Watford and the bowling attack did their job by restricting the later batsmen, while taking wickets regularly, to secure victory in the 49th over, by 40 runs.

Town moved up to 3rd in the table, as a result, just two points behind Langleybury who beat Flitwick 2nds by five wickets. Tewin remain top, a further 10 points ahead.

Gaurav Shinagare celebrates his century for Watford Town first team at Bishop's Stortford (Image: Richard Bayliss)

June 27th match-of-the-day saw the top two face up to each other, with Watford Town 2nds taking on Mill Hill Village 1st team, at Woodside.

Batting first, each of Mill Hill's first four batsmen took their scores into the 20s but none could go on to build a match-winning innings. Town's strength was again shown to be its bowling attack, as the visitors' score subsided from 110 for 3, to 118 for 7. A few late order runs took the final all-out total to 159, which allowed Town to feel reasonably confident of victory.

Mill Hill's bowlers made life difficult, however, especially Obaid Rehman who took 5 wickets for just 19 runs, in 10 overs, to reduce Town to 91 for 6. Uzzy Majid, with a careful 34, became Town's saviour, along with the later batsmen who were willing to battle their way through to achieve the win, which eventually came with two wickets and more than five overs to spare.

The leading all-round performance, for Watford, came from Gunjan Hazarika. In the Mill Hill innings the spin bowler took 4 for 19 in his 10 overs, before he opened the batting and scored a steady 22 to set the team on the road to victory. It's that form which has earned him a call-up from India's over-50s age group team, playing in England over the next few weeks, starting with three matches this week, against Zimbabwe, England and Wales.

Town took 30 points from the match, to extend their lead at the top of the table to 21 points over Mill Hill Village, and a commanding 52 more than 3rd placed Hatfield Hyde.

There was a second successive defeat for Watford Town's 3rd team but they hold on to 3rd place, 11 points behind Bushey 2nds who went down to a surprise defeat at the hands of basement team, Redbourn 3rds.

Town hosted Northwood Town 2nd team on Saturday and saw their batsmen build a good total, starting with an opening partnership of 70 from Paresh Sorathia (41) and Rupesh Nagarkar (34) but it was the powerful middle-order contribution of Sajjad Bhatti, with an unbeaten 51 from 46 balls, which allowed Town to reach 215 for 8, in their 40 overs.

Bhatti then became Watford's most successful bowler, with 3 for 38 from his eight overs, but none of the bowling attack could stop Northwood's victory charge and they reached their target in the 36th over, Mitesh Pondha leading the way, on 65 not out.

Another top-of-the-table clash for Watford Town saw the 4th team depose leaders Tring Park, after a convincing victory by 61 runs.

Batting first, Town recovered from the loss of a wicket in the first over to build a strong total of 225 all out, with the main contributions coming from Ben Burke (54), Sai Devagiri (42) and Cijine John (32) plus 32 extras!

The bowlers then took over, limiting the scoring opportunities, while taking wickets at regular intervals, and in spite of 52 from opener Matthew Moss, Tring were never really in the picture. They were dismissed for 164 in the 35th over, with Kam Andena taking 4 for 18 and Ben Burke finishing with 3 for 22.

After another win on Saturday, Watford Town 5ths are 2nd in the table behind Potten End, the top two now pulling ahead of the rest, with Town already 42 points ahead of 3rd-placed Rickmansworth 5ths.

At Hatch End, Town were happy to be asked to bat first, especially opener Tariq Mohammed who compiled an attractive 66. In the last of their 40 overs, they were finally dismissed for a daunting total of 247.

Hatch End gave it a go at first, and reached 64 before the 2nd wicket fell, but the innings then fell away sharply, with skipper Faisal taking 3 wickets for 6 runs, and Vaibhav Ahuja 3 for 15, as the hosts were dismissed for 94.

There was a huge win for Town's Sunday 1st team (June 28), against Chorleywood, after Town's batters ran amok and scored 308 for 6 in their 45 overs. Outstanding performances came from Riahn Pieris (83), skipper Gunjan Hazarika (67) and Syed Ali (65).

With five of Town's six bowlers taking wickets, Chorleywood folded to 130 all out in the 30th over, to lose by 178 runs.

Watford now sit joint top (with Chingford) of the Chess Valley League, with one-third of the season completed.