THREE Orsett batsmen took the indoor cricket competition by storm at Grays School on Friday evening as Tom Haden and Joseph Mitchell thundered their way to respective undefeated scores of 40 and 51 for the “A” team, while James Harvey from the Orsett “B” team plundered 58 runs to hold the current highest individual score of the event.
Haden and Mitchell were responsible for the posting of a 124-4 team score, aided by 14 runs from Harry Lockyer. Opponents Thurrock mustered 76-3 in reply, with Bilal Qureshi undefeated on 21, Alfie Feeney reached the same score when he was dismissed and Charlie Hodge contributed one short of a dozen. There was also an outstanding contribution from Thurrock’s Morgan Thompson, who took two excellent diving catches, while the Orsett “A” wicket takers were Jack Plom, George Smith and Mitchell. Shameer Qureshi led the way with the ball for the Blackshots-based team by claiming 2-31 from three overs, while Catherine Hodge and Feeney picked up one wicket each.
Despite Harvey’s heroics with the bat, his Orsett second team fell by two wickets at the hands of a buoyant Stanford outfit as the remaining five Orsett players contributed only 21 additional runs. Orsett “B” were dismissed for 79. Stanford reached their target through Ethan Thomas, 22, and a fine 21 not out from Tom Willats, though Lewis Markham put in a superb bowling performance with three wickets at a cost of just 23 runs inside three overs. For Stanford, Jack Carter and Willats, completing a fine all-round display, picked up 2-13 and 2-26 respectively.
Horndon on the Hill enjoyed a comfortable four-wicket win over Belhus “B”. Alex Kojczyk, fielding at mid-on and wicketkeeper Daniel Stone combined to execute an early run-out, but Cameron Blake clubbed his way to a face-saving knock of 21 runs though good bowling from Kojczyk and Owen Jones yielded identical figures of 2-12. Belhus “B” were dismissed for 55 but had secured their first batting bonus point of the campaign. In the Horndon reply, Daniel Petts hit 14 not out while Joshua Reynolds picked up 2-31 for Belhus.
There are no fixtures on Good Friday, but the actions returns the following week (Friday 5th April) when the following fixtures will take place: 6pm – Thurrock v Orsett “B”; 7pm – Stanford le Hope v Orsett “A”; 8pm – Belhus “A” v Horndon on the Hill.
