Harold Wood captain Craig Perrin was pleased his side showed they are more than capable of beating the top sides in the Shepherd Neame Essex League Premier Division last weekend.
Wood sealed a 32-run victory over reigning league champions Brentwood after Perrin elected to bat first and top scored with 67 in a total of 173-9.
The hosts then managed to cause a shock by bowling Brentwood out for 141 with Waqas Shafique taking a five-wicket haul at Harold Wood Park.
“It was nice to bounce back from the defeat against Wanstead and show what we’re capable of when we perform against one of the top sides in the division,” Perrin said.
“We thought we were a little bit light with the bat still, obviously the pitch had quite a bit of juice in it, it was quite lively to start with.
“It was nice to help the team recover from that and post what was a competitive score, but one where we possibly thought we were still 20-30 runs below par.
“Once you get a score on the board, though, you never know and it ended up being enough.”
The skipper was keen to praise his entire bowling unit for their efforts but did single out Shafique for his terrific haul.
“We started quite brightly, picked up a couple of early wickets, Shabaz Khan set the tone with the new ball, bowled eight overs, and I don’t think he went for too many runs and picked up a few wickets,” he added.
“That allowed us to bring the spinners into the game. Taqi Abbas and Waqas Shafique then really took the game away from Brentwood, and obviously Waqas took five wickets along the way and bowled superbly.”
Wood will look to build on the win when they visit Chelmsford on Saturday, but Perrin knows they still have work to do, adding: “It’s a need for us to strive for consistency as we’ve still got a long way to go. We’ve won one game, but it doesn’t mean a lot if you don’t win the next or are not competitive in the next one.
“It’s all about trying to make sure we are as consistent as we can be. Obviously I think there is plenty of work for us to be done with bat, I know our bowling is strong.
“We want to score more as 180 is often not enough, so we don’t want to rest on our laurels, and know we could have done better.”
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here