Fours beat Rainham in top of the table clash

Goresbrook 4s extended their winning run to six games with a superb victory against second in the table Rainham 3s at May and Bakers on Saturday afternoon. In hot and humid conditions Rainham won the toss and asked Goresbrook to bat.

Goresbrook made sweeping changes from side that beat Rayleigh the previous week to reach the summit of division 12. Andy Livett made way for Paul Lowe whilst seamer Kernal Kaylan came in for youngster Khondakar. Behind the stumps Dominic Gurden replaced the touring Danny Gillham Jnr whilst Lee Jones and Andrew Pauling were replaced by Daniel and Ricci Parnell who had recently returned from international duty.

Last weeks star performer Harry Jackson opened the batting with Paul Lowe and faced the quickest pace attack found this season in a much changed Rainham team that were beaten by Brook in June. Steve Foster and Anish Patel hit their line early on and found bounce to go with their pace on a green tinged pitch. When Foster over pitched in the third over Lowe attempted to help the ball on but was comfortably caught at short leg.

Rainham, with this early reward were keen to apply more pressure, Atif Ali replaced Lowe and he was soon bogged down by the persistent line and length of Patel. Patel's opening spell was superb, the young strike bowler bowled five overs for a miserly two runs included opening with four successive maidens.

Jackson was frustrated by Foster at the other end, when he did get bat on ball the Rainham field made superb stops. Sensing a need to try and hit out to move the scoreboard on, Jackson started to hit out and although he hit two fine fours he never looked settled and it was no surprise when he was caught behind off Foster.

Brook were 28-2 and looking a little shaky but Adi Kumar was the right man for the situation and steadied the innings down with Ali looking more and more dangerous. Ali scored just eleven from his first fifty balls but once he was joined at the crease by Kumar scoring became easier.

The pair put on 42 before Kumar was stupidly run out as Ali called for an unlikely 2nd run. Kumar's 18 came from 35 balls and he was replaced by Gurden who played an anchor role to Ali who was now scoring at will. Ali was dispatching the Rainham backup bowlers to all parts of the Annex and reached his fifty with a push through the covers. His second 50 balls produced the same number of runs and he was finally removed for 63, caught behind from the bowling of returning opener Foster.

Gurden soon followed, caught in the covers, again from Foster, while Keith Maund was enjoying time in the middle and played a series of excellent drives. Following Gurdens dismissal Gillham Snr briefly joined Maund before harshly being adjudged lbw even though he was at least four metres down the pitch taking on the returning Anish Patel.

Kernal Kaylan didn’t last long either, bamboozled by the guile of Rainham's Abdul. Ricci Parnell was next in hit an important 13 runs from ten balls to remain unbeaten at the end of the allotted overs with Maund finishing on 25 not out. The pair pushed Brook over the magic 150 marker to seal a batting point in difficult conditions.

Gillham and Mumtaz opened the bowling for Brook and Gillham struck in the third over. Bowling with pace and aggression Gillham unsettled both openers and an unplayable short pitched delivery was gloved down leg side by Foster where the superb Dominic Gurden to a fantastic tumbling catch.

Mumtaz again bowled well but didn’t have any luck for the second week running. By drinks in the 15th over Kieran Howard and Neeral Patel had taken the score from 21-1 in the tenth over to 49. Neeral was a strong batsman who wasn’t afraid to play his shots and hit Mumtaz for a maximum in his final over.

Maund turned to the experience of Ali and youthful exuberance of Daniel Parnell to try and break the partnership and this bore fruit two overs after drinks. Howard again tried to hook a long hop from Ali but picked out Ricci Parnell at deep midwicket who made an excellent catch. As all good goalkeepers do, Parnell got everything behind the ball and although he failed to hang on to the ball first time round, he made no mistake as the ball dropped into his hands after hitting him square in the mouth. The damage was luckily minimal and despite lots of blood and cuts to top and bottom lips Parnell's teeth stayed intact.

The very next ball saw another slow ball bouncer from Ali and this time Neeral took on the challenge only to pick out Gillham at long on. With the two danger men gone Goresbrook's were in the ascendency and despite surviving the hat trick ball Anish Patel fell to a fine delivery from Ali that took the outside edge before again being caught by Gurden to leave Rainham reeling on 52-4.

The very next over Daniel Parnell got in on the act as Adi Kumar took a superb catch at Mid on as Suni tried to hit Rainham out of trouble. Parnell, despite an erratic first over bowled with pace and hostility in his five over spell that returned 1-11. Amongst the devastation Rainhams Danny Saddai played a sensible stubborn innings and was joined by skipper Thwaites and the two frustrated Brook for a while before Kalyan produced a delivery with pace that ripped through Thwaites' defence and sent the stumps tumbling and the growing Brook support into celebration.

Youngster Nakhul Patel was next and found the going tough and finally succumbed to Kalyan's nagging line outside off stump and edged a delivery to Paul Lowe at first slip who took a very sharp catch. Abdul was next in for Rainham and although the writing looked to be on the wall as Rainham stood at 74-7 he played some shots and pushed the field back before holing out to Gillham in the deep to give Kaylan his third wicket and his fourth followed soon after as Saddai gloved a delivery to Gurden behind the stumps.

Ricci Parnell was handed the ball after a four over salvo from Harry Jackson that returned 0-10 and bowled with precision before tempting Manning into a drive through mid on where he only found the outstretched hand of Gillham who took a superb catch low down to bring the match to a close.

This was a terrific win for Goresbrook 4s against a strong Rainham side and was ultimately decided by the alround performance from Atif Ali who's 63 was followed by his three wicket over and figures of 3-15 and Kernal Kalyans quickfire four wicket haul.

Batting
Atif Ali - 63
Adi Kumar - 18
Keith Maund - 25no
Ricci Parnell - 13no

Bowling
Gillham - 6-2-18-1
Ali - 7-2-15-3
D Parnell - 5-1-11-1
Kernal Kalyan - 6-1-11-4
R Parnell - 1-0-1-1

Fielding
Gurden - 3 catches
Gillham - 3 catches