Binfield Cricket Club's 5th XI lost by four wickets away at Slough CC on Saturday 8 August 2026, Evie Folwell's 54 and Mitesh Patel's brisk 38 lifting them to 220 in a Thames Valley Cricket League (TVCL) Division 9D fixture before Slough CC's 8th XI got home at 221 for 6, captain Hardeep Sachdeva anchoring the chase with 82.

There are afternoons when a side does a great deal right for two hours and still comes home second-best, and this was one of them for the 5th XI, beaten by four wickets at Slough after a start that had promised a good deal more than 220.

That start was the work of Evie Folwell and Peter Henly, who opened with a stand of 77 in fine style - Folwell's 54 the mainstay, 66 balls and seven fours of watchful, well-organised batting, Henly making a busy 31. When Folwell and Mitesh Patel then added 60 for the second wicket, Patel racing to 38 from 34 balls with eight fours, Binfield were 137 for 2 and eyeing something close to 250. It did not quite come. The middle order was pegged back by Slough's captain Hardeep Sachdeva and the sharp Kabir Sheikh (3 for 37), and a promising platform subsided to 220 all out, Paul Edgington's 14 from eight balls - the innings' only six among them - the last real flourish.

Binfield will reflect, too, that they were a shade too generous in the field. They gave away 24 extras during Slough's innings - ten byes and eight wides among them - against the six that Slough's own bowlers conceded, an 18-run swing handed to the other side before a shot was played, and in a match settled by a handful of runs that ledger mattered.

For all that, 220 was a total to bowl at, and for a third of the chase it was a proper contest - the worm has the two innings tracking each other almost stride for stride through the first dozen or so overs. What tilted it was Hardeep Sachdeva. His 82 was the innings of the match, an unhurried captain's knock that took the sting out of Binfield's attack and, from around the 18th over, drew Slough steadily clear of where Binfield had been at the same stage. Matthew Potter, Binfield's captain, and Zoe Docherty both took two, and Raghu Raman's 33 lent Sachdeva willing support, but Slough reached 221 for 6 with overs to spare.

It leaves the 5th XI fifth in Division 9D on 174 points, with plenty still to play for. No disgrace in losing to an innings as good as Sachdeva's, and there was much in the batting - the Folwell-Henly opening and Patel's cameo especially - to build the next afternoon on. The long road home from Slough, and better days to come.