South Hampstead secure first victory in dramatic finale against Wembley

Nish Patel in action for South Hampstead (Image: Archant)

Rampant half-centuries from Leroy Shepherd and Nish Patel secured a first league win of the season for South Hampstead, who clinched a three-wicket victory over Wembley with just four balls to spare.

Having lost in the final over of last weekend’s contest against Kenton, SH were this time the victors in a dramatic finale to move off the bottom of the table.

Moazzam Ritvi hit 111 for Wembley as they declared on 232-6 after 53 overs, but that was not enough as South Hampstead reached the winning target in 46.2 overs.

SH won the toss at their Milverton Road home and inserted Wembley, who made a solid start.

Touqeer Ahmad (1-50) dismissed Sneh Shah (11) at 30-1 but the visitors added 66 runs for the second wicket, when Mitchell Fry (22) was caught by Leroy Shepherd from a James Williams delivery.

Prinay Patel’s leisurely innings of 19 from 56 balls came to an end when he was caught and bowled by Williams (2-55), and Ashan Athukorolage (11) was dismissed by Amit Chakrawarti (3-62) at 172-4.

Wembley opener Ritvi had passed his century after hitting 111 off 125 balls, but he was eventually bowled by Chakrawarti.

With the overs running out and Wembley wickets in hand, Tapan Patel struck eight off nine balls before being caught by Alex Ranger off Chakrawarti – and Chulananda DeSilva (30 not out) and Alex Greig (8no) were left unbeaten as the visitors declared at 232 from 53 overs.

That left South Hampstead with 47 overs to chase down the total, and they did so with a fine display of aggressive batting.

Majid Akram made 31 off 22 balls before being bowled by Arjan (5-100), who went on to dismiss Williams (16) and Algie Corbin (9), while Tapan Patel (2-69) accounted for Sam Bardon (18) – and that left SH in a bit of trouble at 95-4.

However, Nish Patel and Shepherd added a rapid 66 for the fifth wicket, with Shepherd hitting 53 off 48 balls – and captain Alex Ranger then contributed 16 at a run a ball.

Patel notched 55 off 61 balls before his departure, leaving SH within sight of victory at 214-7, and Karthik Jagannathan (16no) and Ahmad (8no) secured the win in the final over.

Meanwhile, Brondesbury were also triumphant in Division Two, winning at Uxbridge and moving three places up the table into third spot.

Brondesbury won the toss, inserting Uxbridge, and Rob Nelson recorded highly impressive bowling figures of 5-12 to restrict the hosts to 83 all out. Brondesbury took just 20.1 overs to reach the target at 84-5.