North Mymms Pip 3’s to the Post in Narrow Win

On a bright but muggy day, the Hertford captain Ian Codd was glad to be fielding on a patchy wicket, despite losing the toss. The 3’s line up saw the return of Rahul Sharma to the mix and a call up for George Gardener from the 4’s to strengthen the bowling attack.

The North Mymms top order struggled to cope with the consistency of Ross Murphy and David Beardsley. A tight opening spell from David Beardsley was once again not suitably rewarded and ended with 1/27. However, Ross returned with 3/38 at the other end, figures justified by his immaculate line and length throughout the spell. Though North Mymms tried to up the scoring, consistent wickets from Hertford’s bowlers stemmed the flow of runs. Shridhar Kumar continued his fine form with the ball, finishing with 3/35.

Harry Cobb, the talented middle order North Mymms batsman was an exception as he took the attack to Hertford with a well-crafted 49, supported by Sunny Sharma who was unbeaten at 33. North Mymms finished at 162 off 35.2 overs, assisted by a huge tally of extras (25) from Hertford which was the third highest scorer. 2 fine run outs towards the end of the innings (by Hugh Walsh and Ross Murphy) stopped North Mymms from posing a huge total.

As the day brightened, the wicket started to ease a bit raising the Hertford 3’s hopes of another home win. However, these hopes were quickly thrashed by another poor start from the Hertford top order.

Some persistent bowling by North Mymms helped by poor shot selection once again saw Hertford struggling to chase a small total at 4/46. Rahul Sharma was the only exception as he battled hard initially to later impose himself for a strong 32. However, when he was ousted by Kyran Millard it was back to the trusted middle order of Ian Codd and Michael Ives to rescue Hertford again. Another strong partnership of 45 between these two raised the hopes of the home team.

However, the dibbly-dobblers from David Searle proved too difficult for the middle and lower order batsmen. David Searle bowled with a lot of tact and consistency to finish strongly at 4/35. Despite the valiant efforts of the Hertford middle order batsmen, the team fell short of the margin by 19 runs, finishing with 13 points.

Hertford 3’s are away at Frogmore next week, aiming to secure a much needed win to regain lost momentum.

Author: Shri Kumar