Harold Wood captain Craig Perrin described his side's loss to Hornchurch as "one that got away".
Last weekend's Hamro Foundation Essex League Premier Division match saw Hornchurch take the win by 21 runs at Harrow Lodge Park.
The triumph came despite a difficult start with the bat after Perrin elected to bowl first.
The hosts struggled to build any momentum, reaching just 86-5 after 29 overs.
Only opener Jamie Sorrell (27) passed the teens out of Hornchurch's top five.
But Adeel Malik hit three sixes in his 33-ball 38 and Chris Sains starred with six maximums in smashing 64 off 50 deliveries.
Their hitting enabled Hornchurch to reach 204-8 off their 45 overs.
Perrin said: "It was one that got away from us a little bit in the back end of the Hornchurch innings.
"A couple of their guys played very good knocks and got them up to a competitive total and probably 30 runs more than we hoping to allow them to get to."
Taqi Abbas was the pick of the Harold Wood bowlers, with figures of 9-1-23-3.
"Taqi bowled brilliantly, great control and picked up some vital wickets. As did all of the bowlers to be honest," Perrin said.
"Waqas Shafique bowled a really nice spell and the same with Dan Carter and Shahbaz Khan."
Karan Patra led the visitors' reply with a patient 43 but they lost regular wickets to leave them on 88-5.
Despite skipper Perrin's unbeaten 56 off 58 balls and a late flurry from Abbas (24 off 19), Harold Wood fell short on 183-7.
Five Hornchurch bowlers picked up wickets, while skipper Billy Gordon only went for 16 runs in his nine-over allocation.
Perrin felt his side lost too many wickets in the middle overs of the run chase.
"We never really got a partnership going and had two people contributing at the same time towards chasing the target down," he added.
"We were always slightly behind where we wanted to be but again they bowled four or five very good overs at the back end."
Hornchurch, who travel to bottom club Billericay on Saturday, are third in the table with Harold Wood in sixth.
Perrin's side travel to Brentwood at the weekend, who were bowled out for just 41 in losing to Hadleigh & Thundersley last time out.
But the Harold Wood skipper is expecting a stern test, adding: "They're a very strong side and on paper they're one of the top sides in the league.
"We know it will be a tough game but we'll go there with every intention of giving them a very good game of cricket and hopefully come out on the winning side of it."
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