THE ENFIELD Exiles were in action at the weekend.
The first XI won their Saracens Herts Cricket League division four match against Dunstable Town by four wickets.
The second XI won their division nine encounter against Monken Hadley with a score of 129 for 6 after dismissing Hadley for 125.
Exiles third team slipped to an eight wicket defeat in the division 11 clash to Hertford IX.
The first XI match was very much a team effort. First the seamers, led by Wesley Strang (1-18) and Haroon Akhtar (2-20).
They restricted their visitors to 62-5 in 25 overs and, after the major stand of the Dunstable innings between I Duffett (44) and R Daniels (36) had added 67, spinners Adrian Browne (4-28) and David Taylor (2-29) took charge to dismiss Dunstable for 154 in the 53rd over.
Exiles lost their openers early, but Steve Plum (26) and Akhtar (26) rapidly improved the position, and, after Browne (20) had been run out, Rizwan Badar (35*) for the second game in a row coolly took charge and steered Exiles to a 4-wicket victory at 155-6 with 14 overs to spare, increasing their lead at the top of the division.
In the second XI match, the outstanding individual performance came from Nathan Knox as the 2nd XI beat Monken Hadley by four wickets to keep up their challenge for a promotion place from Div 9.
His best performance with the ball for Exiles, 6-27, supported by Corin Hosier (2-22) was largely instrumental in dismissing their opponents for 125.
After the loss of both openers for just one run in the second over, with Darshan Naik (29) leading a partial recovery, the game was still in the balance before Knox (52*) and Hosier (14*) teamed up again to steer Exiles to 129-6 and victory.
The third XI failed to build on a determined 100 by skipper Dharmesh Patel, supported by Jaydip Patel (28) and James Cook (18) But the Exiles lost their last five wickets for just 10 runs in five overs to be dismissed for 181 by Hertford 4th XI in Div 11.
Only Astley Tomlinson, who conceded just 10 runs in 6 overs, was able to keep the Hertford batsmen in check as they eased to 183-2 with almost 6 overs remaining to condemn Exiles to an eight-wicket defeat.
Exiles lost their 2nd round match in the Herts County Trophy on Sunday by 4 wickets to St Albans West Indian.
After a bright start, they saw a couple of well-taken early catches off the visitors' openers C Ramsay (2-40) and K Stapleton (2-35) and, when Paul Frost (20) was bowled just before the first drinks interval, Exiles were struggling at 63-4.
Adrian Browne (19) and Rizwan Badar (10) seemed to be restoring parity when they were out in successive balls from R Umar (3-21) and D Sittol (2-15) and,from 91-6, against a keen attack the tail was unable to provide Wayne Lawler (29*) with the necessary support as Exiles were dismissed in the 43rd over for a mere 134.
The visitors' batsmen took the offensive from the start, and although they lost wickets, too, so that Exiles were still just in the game at 62-4 in the 13th over (Harit Patel 2-23) a controlled innings from P Duguid (49*), supported by Sittol (17), then took charge as St Albans West Indians reached their target at 136-6 with 17 overs to spare.
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