John Pinkham saw London Colney over the line in a nervy win over Hatfield & Crusaders in Saracens Herts Division Five A.

Herts Advertiser: Skipper Rick Zeiderman gets solidly behind a rising delivery during his watchful innings of 35.Skipper Rick Zeiderman gets solidly behind a rising delivery during his watchful innings of 35. (Image: Archant)

Needing three an over in their chase of Hatfield’s 150, Colney took their time and crept towards the total. It took Pinkham’s introduction at number seven to get them over the line as, needing 16 from the 18 balls, he found the boundary before launching the next delivery for six.

With four runs required from two overs, he easily won the match, finishing unbeaten on 17.

Pinkham’s swashbuckling batting style sealed Colney’s third win in five games but the openers, captain Rick Zeiderman (35) and Mitch Bradley (28), and number three Craig Parker (32) put him in a favourable position with their contributions.

Zeiderman and Bradley put 63 runs on the board for the first wicket in 25 overs before the captain chipped the ball Tony Jakes to join his fellow opener in the pavilion after he was spun out by Deepak Hasiza (2-32).

Parker and Matt Bristow (13) added a swift 19 to set up Pinkham’s late innings heroics.

His exploits were not reserved to batting; Pinkham had already had two wickets before his match-winning innings. He trapped Keven Whitehead (15) LBW and clean bowled Preet Singh for 17.

His wickets helped a depleted attack, missing Andy Cole and Tim Fretter, restrict Hatfield to just 150.

Dave Goff was superb with the new ball, taking two of the top three batsmen, to finish with figures of 3-28. Uzman Zaman (1-18) removed opener Sukhi Grewal for a duck.

Simon Fretter was a perfect change bowling, taking three wickets, including that of Hasiza for 47, when Hatfield threaten to take advantage of slack fielding.

Partnered with Bristow (1-28), Fretter removed the tail to set Colney a modest total to chase. Still, they need Pinkham’s power to limp over the line.