Harpenden will be left wondering what might have been after coming up just short at home to Welwyn Garden City.

The four-wicket loss means they are still searching for a first win of the truncated Herts Cricket League Premier Division season but for large parts of the second innings it was they who looked on target for victory.

After setting a target of 173, they had Welwyn in all sorts of trouble at 91-6.

Alex Evans had started things off with two wickets in an eventful third over which also saw him bowl six wides.

First, a leading edge saw Owais Shah depart for six and two balls later Adil Zareef was trapped leg before without troubling the scorers.

That left WGC on 24-2 and Jack Doyle, bowling a good spell of spin, then kept the pressure on and ensured that away wickets continued to tumble.

Andrew Nolan was bowled for 15, Rizvi and Dan Blacktopp were caught by Andrew Neal and James Latham, for seven and six respectively, and when Dylan Van Der Westhuizen was caught behind by Tom Beasley for three, Welwyn were in peril.

But while one end was seeing wickets tumble and stumps shattered, the other saw Louis Champion quietly biding his time.

And when the opener found Connor Emerton able to stick around with him, the game’s momentum changed.

The pair batted beautifully and only one run-out scare almost ended the unbeaten 82-run partnership that saw Welwyn home with a little more than five overs remaining.

Champion ended on 67 not out while Emerton was on 37. Doyle meanwhile took 4-24 and Evans 2-40.

Earlier Mohammed Rizvi had ripped through the Harpenden middle order before finishing off the tail, leaving the hosts 172 all out.

His final figures were a wonderful 6-38 although there was 2-30 from Emerton.

Harpenden who only managed one 50-plus partnership in the innings, that between top scorer Scott Galloway and Zaid Kureshi (12) for the sixth wicket.

Neal also managed to score 32.

The up side to recent defeats is that the performances against the top sides have been impressive. They now just need to start turning them into wins, starting with Saturday’s trip to Reed.