MK lose ground in the title race after slow Elstow defeat

It was looking pretty tight atop Four Counties Division 1, but Milton Keynes, heading into the day in second, thought they had done enough to pick up the points when, led by Nimesh Chavda's 3-45, they restricted Elstow to just 138-9.

In response though, Ravi Galsin's 5-25 ripped through the top order and reduced the home side for 134, four runs short of the mark. Ben Warren was the top-scorer with 31.

It meant North Crawley's (152-5) five wicket win over bottom club Great Horwood (148) ensured the gap at the top of the league opened up to 34 points to Thurleigh with three games remaining, while MK are 47 points adrift.

Thurleigh now sit second after beating Westcroft by three wickets. Zaheer Khan (55) and Asad Shah (42) rescued a stumbling innings in the middle order, setting 181-6 for Thurleigh to chase. Shah took 4-37 but it was not enough as Thurleigh reached 186-7.

Olney moved up to third spot as they beat New City by three wickets. Jeremiah Shields hit 66 at the top of the order to fire Olney to 183-7, before Stuart Keeping took 5-15 in sending New City back into the drop zone, bowled out for 136.

New Bradwell are out of the relegation zone after their game with Eaton Bray was abandoned agonisingly close to the finale. Chriss Timms scored a fine 120 as Bradwell scored 261-7, and though James McMillan took 4-35, Bray looked a match for the home side and needed 16 runs from the final three overs to claim the win. However, rain forced the game into abandonment, with New Bradwell claiming 19 points and Bray 18.