13th August 2016 League Away v Southend-on-sea & EMT

Southend-on-sea & EMT won the toss and elected to bat

Result – Draw

The Good, The Bad and the Ugly. Ennio Morricone’s theme to the classic spaghetti western would have provided an appropriate accompaniment to this match.
The Good? Some fearsome hitting by Southend’s captain Joe Robbins: his 150 not out was off no more than about 70 balls and included thirteen 4s and nine 6s. It was the most destructive innings Luke Heskett had witnessed in 10 years of First XI cricket; ridiculously good hitting to which Harlow had no answer. There was also the 121 not out by Southend opener Tom Phillippe, a more measured affair and one which provided the backbone of the home side’s innings of 328 for 2 off 48 overs. There were excellent knocks too by Harlow’s Hafiz (96) and Ubaid (70 not out) as they resisted considerable pressure from the home side in order to secure a draw. The teas were rather good too.

The Bad? An unadventurous declaration by Southend which left Harlow needing to score at nearly 7 runs an over from their 48 overs. The loss of three wickets early in Harlow’s reply meant that there was soon no realistic prospect of Harlow chasing the target; much to Southend’s irritation Harlow settled for reaching 200 and maximum batting points. The ‘run out’ of Ahmed Khawaja by Southend’s keeper was pretty unsporting. Khawaja left his crease to tap down the wicket and was not attempting a run when the keeper threw the ball at the stumps. Some of the Harlow bowling figures were bad although Mitch Howarde picked up the only two Southend wickets to fall.

The Ugly? The ball being aggressively thrown in the direction of the umpire when he had turned down a Southend appeal; luckily the ball hit the stumps, not the official.

Oh, and the outcome? In this bad-tempered draw Southend scored 328-2 (10 points) and Harlow 201-5 (4 points). Southend retain second place in the table while Harlow ease back to a comfortable mid-table position, 26 points from an unlikely promotion and 31 points from an even more improbable relegation.