1st XI Earn Winning Draw Away to Mymms

Hertford won the toss and put Mymms out in the field as Hertford’s openers Hugh Cavener and Fayaz Homyoon looked to give Hertford a strong start.

Mymms started well with the ball with Oxley dismissing Cavener plumb LBW in the fourth over. Will Ray came in at no. 3, looking to build on his innings of 89 at Totteridge last weekend. Both Homyoon and Ray battled it out in the heat as they looked to rotate the strike.

The steady 20 over partnership of Ray and Homyoon was broken by Wynne when he took Ray’s off stump with a good ball. Wickets began to fall in quick succession as Richard Leather was trapped LBW by Wynne and soon after, Bailey Eustance was caught. Leather making 5 and Eustance, 14. Hertford were now 101-4 as Lawrance came in to steady the ship with Homyoon still ticking along nicely on 51*.

With Mymms’ top class spin attack of Imran Qayyum and Chanaka Ruwansiri, Lawrance and Homyoon did well to keep the scoreboard ticking at a decent rate by finding the gaps in the field with relative ease.

With Homyoon looking for his second league Hundred this season, he began to motor towards it with an explosive display of 6 hitting over cow corner. He was eventually dismissed with a classy caught and bowled from Chanaka, finishing with 101 from 164 balls.

Lawrance looked destructive until he offered up a straight forward catch to Chanaka at mid-wicket. However his important 38 off of 62 allowed Hertford‘s lower order to motor in the last few overs of their innings. Hertford’s captain Benji Cowell finished the innings well, scoring a quick 28 off of 21 balls. Hertford finished on 232-7, which looked to be a strong score on what was a bowler friendly wicket.

With the ball, Hertford had a quick start with Ben Orchard running down the slope and bowling out North Mymms no.1 Rhys Wynne who had made 3 during his short time at the crease. Hertford immediately went to the spin of Bailey Eustance as the wicket was turning so the off spin of Eustance seemed to be the way to go.

After a period of hard fought cricket, Hertford’s second wicket came in the 16th over as Eustance’s spin did the trick and dismissed Harry Cobb. A good partnership between Muralitharan and Chanaka then took the home side to 100 until Eustance struck again to get Muralitharan caught by Ray at cover for 51.

Another two wickets fell in the next two overs. Adam Carlson had Hamza Qayyum caught by Will Ray again for 0 and the following ball in the next over, Fayaz Homyoon had Mymms’ overseas Chanaka caught behind by skipper Benji Cowell. Hertford were certainly on top going into the second half of the innings with North Mymms 101-5.

Carlson and Cavener were bowling tight from both ends, causing the pressure to build on Mymms. This caused the fall of two quick wickets both coming from Adam Carlson. He first had Imran Qayyum trapped LBW and then bowled the new batsmen, Jack Cobb, in his next over. Being 7 down and with only a few overs left in the day, Mymms decided to shut up shop and bat out for the draw, much to the frustration of Hertford. Richard Soulsby being the architect of the block out for Mymms as he made 40 off of 85 balls. Mymms finished 68 runs short of Hertford’s total. With Mymms finishing 8 down, Hertford were able to enjoy the extra points of the winning draw, leaving Home Farm with a healthy 16 points under their belts.

Many positives were taken from the game by captain Benji Cowell as Hertford now look to push on and gain a crucial home win against West Herts this coming Saturday. Adam Carlson finished with Hertford’s best match figures of 3-36 from 13 overs.

Written by Jonny Underdown