Barking prevail in tight encounter

Goresbrook's once commanding advantage in the ECCL Premier Division has been whittled down to 2 points after a final ball defeat to reigning champions Barking, the Mayesbrook Park side defending a total of 185 on a swelteringly hot day.

Barking skipper Shaan Shafiq won the toss and elected to bat and he led from the front with a battling 43 that saw his side off to a reasonable start. Having survived the new ball for just the loss of Shafiq's opening partner Shah to a marginal runout decision, it was the introduction of the Goresbrook spinners that provoked a tumble of wickets, Toby Maund bowling an excellent spell of 9 overs 4 for 30 to leave Barking in some trouble at 110-6.

Despite a mini-recovery as Quereshi and Saeed pushed the ball around for 1s and 2s, wickets continued to fall and the dismissal of the dangerous Imran Butt looked to have Goresbrook firmly in the ascendancy, Barking being 150-9 with just 4 overs to go. However some fine hitting from number 10 Moiz, supported well by the number 11 Saddique added 35, setting a much more challenging total for the hosts, the partnership finally being broken on the penultimate delivery of the innings as Saddique chipped a return catch to Bryan Atkins.

In reply, the Goresbrook innings started positively as Kurt Whisker and Jordan Calverley found the boundary rope on a number of occasions, unfortunately however, both fell trying to push the score along and when the out of form Afzal Hussain followed for a duck, Sam Cooper and Toby Maund set about rebuilding the innings.

Rebuild they did, but with Raza's slow left arm and Saeed's wily in-swingers proving hard to get away, the run rate required started to escalate. As the rate inched towards 7 an over, Brook started to lose composure, Maund and Shane Barwick both being run out as Cooper looked to pinch risky singles. When an exhausted Cooper fell for 42, the task of getting Goresbrook over the line fell to Kane Messenger, going well by that stage, and the burly Bryan Atkins and with some strong hitting and intelligent running the pair had whittled down the target from 45 off 4 overs to 13 off 9 balls.

At that stage the match turned on a sensational piece of fielding from Ehsan Afzal, as he ran around the long off boundary and parried a lofted drive from Atkins, that looked for all the world like it was going for six, and then at full stretch caught the ball before it hit the floor.

With Messenger still there, the game came down to nine runs off the final over, but Shah was equal to the task, dismissing Israel Ochwo and then crucially restricting Messenger to just a single from the next 2 balls leaving Brook requiring six from the last ball to win. Shah's Yorker proved too good for new batsman Richard Williams and Barking had sneaked home by 5 runs leaving Messenger stranded for a fine 54 not out.