Binfield Cricket Club's Friendly XI won by 56 runs away at Hurst Rangers CC on Sunday 19 July, Luke Taylor's fluent 67 anchoring a total of 167 for 9 before Ollie Brasier's remarkable 3 for 3 sparked a collapse of five wickets for just seven runs that bowled the hosts out for 111 near Twyford.

Do not be fooled by the gentle word 'friendly', for this was a disciplined and comprehensive Binfield performance from first ball to last. Choosing to bat on a dry, breezy afternoon out at Hurst, the visitors lost Joshua Snelling with just six on the board - but that early stumble proved the last time they looked in any bother. Luke Taylor took root and simply would not be shifted, batting fully 79 balls for a beautifully constructed 67 studded with eight crisp fours, and in Ram Devarakonda (27, four boundaries of his own) he found the ideal partner for a second-wicket stand of 60 that repaired the early damage. Carter Daines chipped in with a busy 18 and Ollie Brasier a brisk 23 from just 22 balls, four of them fours, and though Hurst's Salar Hashmi bowled quite beautifully - six overs, a maiden, two for just 13 - Binfield's 167 for 9, laced with 21 boundaries in all, was a thoroughly competitive total on a surface where runs had to be earned.

Luke Taylor · 67

The reply began disastrously for the hosts and, but for one stand, might have been over in a heartbeat. Binfield's bowlers struck early and struck often, and Hurst Rangers subsided to a parlous 36 for 4 with the innings in tatters. That it recovered any respectability at all was owed entirely to a fifth-wicket stand of real defiance between Salar Hashmi and the watchful Raghuraj Bhatia, who added 68 priceless runs together to haul their side from the mire up to 104 - Hashmi's 33 the top score of the innings, Bhatia's 31 its careful companion.

And then, in the space of a few overs, the whole edifice came crashing down. Having battled so hard to 104, Hurst Rangers lost their last five wickets in a single dizzying heap for a scarcely believable seven runs - and the destroyer was Ollie Brasier. Brought on to finish the job, he needed only a couple of overs to claim three wickets for the princely sum of three runs, a devastating late burst that folded the innings clean away for 111. He had willing accomplices in Archie Mitchell (two for 24, two maidens with the new ball), Will Guest (two for 19) and Peter Henly (two for 27), while Monty Mitchell tidied up behind the stumps with a smart stumping - but the coup de grace, unmistakably, was Brasier's.

Ollie Brasier · 3-3 and 23

A 56-run win it was, then, and a genuine all-rounder's day for Brasier, who had earlier made that brisk 23 with the bat. Six bowlers were used and every one of them contributed; the fielding was sharp throughout. Great credit, too, to Hurst Rangers, and to Salar Hashmi above all - the finest cricketer on view with bat and ball alike - and to Bhatia, whose stand with him briefly threatened to make a proper contest of it. A friendly is meant to be enjoyed by both sides; but this one was Binfield's from first over to last, and it made the short road home from Hurst a decidedly cheerful one.