WALTHAM St Lawrence earned themselves a surprise win as the bottom of the table club defeated third place Twyford and Ruscombe by 50 runs.
Waltham were put into bat first but had a disastrous start as they lost their opening pair for a return of zero runs.
Chris Sharpe fell for a duck after he was bowled out by Razavullah Shaik and his partner followed shortly after as Waltham captain Sree Ventaka, was caught out lbw by Oscar Woodbridge.
But they recovered brilliantly with Vignesh Venkatesh and Harikrishnan Balakrishnan at the crease as they created a fruitful partnership to put some runs on the board for Waltham.
They managed to take their side well over the century mark with a long spell at the middle before Venkatesh was eventually dismissed just one run shy of reaching his half-century.
Twyford finally reduced Balakrishnan to gain a crucial wicket in the innings after he amassed an impressive total of 69 to put Waltham in a strong position.
The middle-order continued to contribute with some valuable innings as Waltham maintained a decent run rate. Wasim Javid knocked 28 runs, while Zaheer Gujjar hit 18 and Andrew Hartland 13.
With Waltham’s innings nearing an end, Pramod Chandane hit ten more runs as they finished their 45 overs on 211-9, an encouraging total after a shaky start.
With 212 set to win the game, Twyford made a promising start to their chase. Balakrishnan got the first breakthrough for Waltham as Chris Sharpe caught out Adam Henley on 15.
Waltham then enjoyed a fantastic bowling spell as they took three wickets in quick succession.
Balakrishnan gained two more wickets as he dismissed Pete Schofield for one, caught by Sree Venkata and then bowled out James Lythgoe for a duck, meanwhile George Zadrozny removed Woodbridge for one.
Twyford had to recover after suffering a collapse at the top order and they did so impressively. Robin Thompson batted well despite not having a consistent partner as the opening batsman top-scored for his side with 43 runs before he was caught out from the bowling of Zaheer Gujjar.
Twyford’s captain Razavullah Shaik, hit them towards the target as he contributed 32 runs, while Tom Powell added 24 more and Andrew Miller 10 as they put the game in the balance.
With Twyford still needing more than 60 runs to seal victory, Waltham were clinical as they reduced Gopi Perumal for a duck.
Siva Kumar bowled a crucial spell at the end of the innings as he took three wickets to see Waltham to victory as they removed Twyford all out on just 161 after 40.2 overs to record just their second triumph of the season.
Waltham St Lawrence batting: Sharpe 0, Venkata 0, Venkatesh 49, Balakrishnan 69, Javed 28, Gujjar 18, Hartland 13, Kumar 1, Chandane 10, Zadrozny 0no, Gale 0no.
Twyford and Ruscombe bowling: Woodbridge 2-35, Shaik 4-38, Miller 1-45, Thompson 1-25, Cherukuri 0-25, Walkland 1-24, Lythgoe 0-6.
Twyford and Ruscombe batting: Thompson 43, Henley 15, Schofield 1, Woodbridge 1, Lythgoe 0, Shaik 32, Powell 24, Miller 10, Peruma; 0, Walkland 11, Cherukuri 2no.
Waltham St Lawrence bowling: Balakrishnan 3-16, Javed 1-25, Zadrozny 1-32, Gujjar 2-42, Kumar 3-34.
