Last gasp Victory for One's

Goresbrook’s 1st Eleven returned to form with dramatic last gasp victory from the penultimate ball of an exciting match at May & Bakers Sports Ground on Saturday. Visiting Captain Sajjad Mirza won the toss and elected to bat on a hot and humid afternoon but was rueing his decision as pacemen Muhammad Attuallah and skipper Kane Messenger conjured up a superb display with the new ball. Atesaam Syed held firm with an entertaining knock of 70 receiving support from Ayaz Younus (30), Aamir Shaukat (29) and Mohit Jain (35) respectively. Just as Newham looked to be back in the ascendancy Shane Barwick and Ted Ivory bagged a brace of victims apiece to restore the balance. The returning Messenger closed out the innings, finishing with a return of 3 for 27 and must have been delighted with his side’s efforts in restricting Newham to a tally under 200 on a hard flat track.

After tea the Dagenham outfit suffered an early setback as opener Shaun Ross was back in the hutch for 7. Opening partner Jordan Calverley (34) mixed dogged resilience with attacking strokeplay, forming the foundation of Goresbrook’s reply. He initially received staunch support from ‘keeper Danny Gillham (jnr) who fashioned a superb 51 – the pair adding 72 for the second wicket. Shane Barwick bagged an identical score of 51 to colleague Gillham with a plethora of boundaries to lift the hosts to 150 for 3 but Newham fought back as Mirza grabbed two quick scalps to take the match into the final over. Some tremendous running between the wickets by Messenger and Ivory steered ‘Brook over the line to a five wicket success.

Newham 1st 194 all out in 48.5 overs (8 points) lost to Goresbrook 1st 195 for 5 in 48.5 overs (20 pts) by 5 wickets