Grace's prevail in tense finish
Graces won the toss and elected to bat on a bright and breezy afternoon but Deepu and acting skipper Hardisty found it slow going against the accurate Raghu and Kumar before Hardisty was caught at the wicket for 3 with the score on 22. The arrival of Patel signalled an improvement in the scoring rate and with Deepu now getting into his stride. The pair added 49 before Patel miss-timed one and was caught and bowled, Deepu followed soon after for a well struck 33. Shofiq was now batting well but lacked support as wickets continued to fall at the other end. Kalyan, Tolley and Modi all came and went in quick succession and when Shofiq was surprisingly bowled by Harry for another aggressive knock of 40 followed quickly by Newton-Sawyer for 2, Graces were in some trouble at 137 for 8 but Bielby following on from his great innings of the previous week helped by a breezy knock from Mamoon Saw Graces to a respectable 165 for 9.
In their reply North Harrow got off to a poor start losing Robin bowled Bielby in his second over for 4 and likewise Matt was caught by Patel off Modi’s second over for a similar score but then came stands of 45 for both the third and fourth wickets and with the score at 98 for 3 skipper Hardisty turned to Shofiq who until this time had been keeping wicket. With his fourth ball he bowled Raghu for a steady 28 and in his third over had the very dangerous Bryce brilliantly caught by Tolley for 44 from just 31 balls including one six and eight fours. In his next over he bowled Harry for a duck and with figures at this point of 3 for 5 in four overs had turned the game with a supererogatory performance but it was left to Bielby to complete the victory taking the final wicket and finishing with 2 for 8 in his 6.1 overs with Graces winning by 9 runs.