Sawbridgeworth 1st XI narrowly lost a thrilling match against fellow unbeaten side St Albans at Townfields on Saturday. On winning the toss, Sawbo elected to bat and started well with Joe Joyce - century makes in the last 2 matches - and Alan Jones putting on 53 for the first wicket. But Joyce’s wicket led to a slow down in the scoring, combined with the loss of regular wickets left Sawbo on 101 for 4 at the half way stage. At that point Amit Gupta came to the crease, he made an excellent 64 off 49 balls. He was ably supported by skipper Alan Ison who made a quick fire 48 off 32. But his wicket with 5 overs to go saw the run rate restricted and Sawbo were bowled out for 273 with 8 balls remaining. Not batting the overs would prove to be costly.

St Albans lost 2 early wickets, but a partnership of 179 between Joe Regan (118) and William Jones (73), appeared to have them cruising to the target. Gupta (4 for 25) then made an impact with the ball, removing both set batters in 3 balls leaving St Albans with 37 to get from 34 balls. Wickets continued to fall as St Albans pushed to maintain the run rate. But with 7 needed off the last over, Mulvaney hit consecutive boundaries to secure the win with 2 balls remaining.