Home Counties review: Datchet move up to seventh after four-wicket win over Wokingham

After last weekend's washout the sun shone as Datchet claimed a four-wicket win over Wokingham on Saturday to move up to seventh in a congested Home Counties League Division 1 table.

Billy Mead's side have had a stuttering start to the summer with three wins and three losses accompanied by last weekend's abandonment at Aston Rowant due to heavy rainfall.

But the tide appears to be turning in their favour, and Mead's men have found their feet in the division in recent weeks as this latest result would attest.

Having won the toss and elected to bat, visitors Wokingham made 292-7 from 64 overs to heap the pressure onto their hosts. However, in favourable batting conditions and on a decent strip, the home side chased down their total for the loss of six wickets in 55 overs.

Wickets were shared around for Datchet, with Sam Harris taking 2-82 and Arjun Tendulkar 2-72, however, their efforts were bettered by Sulaiman Akhtar's 2-58. At one stage Datchet reduced their visitors to 5-69, however, a couple of impressive knocks from Sukhmeet Kang (76) and Samarjeet Singh (107) carried Wokingham to a defendable total.

Datchet needed to be at their best to chase it, and thankfully they were with Joe Barrett (53) and Rahim Akhtar (33) getting the hosts' chase off to a solid start. Steven Naylor hit 65 off 76 balls and Joseph Thomas made 51 from 49 as Datchet reached their target in 55 overs. The result lifts the side to 87 points, just 24 behind leaders Finchampstead with plenty of league games left to be played.

Elsewhere in Division 1, Wargrave were held to a draw by Aston Rowant, despite declaring on an impressive 319-6 with the bat.

Euan Woods' side used 60 overs to build their total after winning the toss, with the captain himself smashing an undefeated 158 and Dan Lincoln assisting with 62.

The pair of them blunted Aston Rowant's hopes of victory, however, the visitors stuck to their task diligently, batting out their 60 overs to reach 207-5. Rowant were conservative in their approach, with Joshua Smith's unbeaten 26 coming off 96 balls and Luke Hayes 44 coming from 75. But they got the job done to thwart and frustrate their hosts and picked up 12 points to Wargrave's 13 points. The result leaves Woods' side eighth in the table on 76 points.

On Saturday the two sides play each other with Wargrave set to host Datchet from 11am.

Slough's steady recovery from a three-game losing streak continued on Saturday as they drew with Thame Town.

Nadeem Syed's side would have travelled to the Division 2's bottom side hopeful of victory, and those hopes will only have grown when they hammered 313-8 declared off 56 overs after being put into bat. However, Thame - while never in the hunt for victory - managed to hold onto enough of their wickets to claim a losing share of the spoils and seven points to Slough's 15.

At the crease, Slough's innings was dominated by the bat of Siddharth Krishnamurthy Venkatesh, who hit 83. There was also a solid half century from Moaaz Ajaz (50) and an undefeated 43 from Umair Mushtaq. However, try as they might, they simply couldn't dislodge Thame despite the best efforts of Sahaan John (3-15). In the end their last two batsmen Brad Watson (1no) and Md Nazmul Islam (6no) put on seven runs between them from 65 deliveries.

The result sees Slough lose a little ground on the leading sides. They sit fourth in the table, 40 points behind leaders Harefield who defeated seventh placed Stoke Green by two wickets.

Green were always going to be up against it as they looked to build on their two league wins so far this season, however, they put a decent fight - with the ball if not with the bat.

Having elected to bat on winning the toss, Gagan Singh's side managed just 99 from 39.3 overs, with their best contribution coming from the bat of Nabeel Janed (23). Charlie Dale was in fine form for Harefield, taking 7-34 in a memorable day for him personally.

Harefield's response, however, was far from straight-forward, with Passikku Madusanka matching Dale's haul, taking 7-42. But captain Stephen Croft's 31 proved the difference, edging the visitors to their target with two wickets in hand on a day when the bowlers very much had the upper hand on the batsmen.

Slough host second placed Gerrards Cross this Saturday while Stoke Green travel to sixth placed Chesham.