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| Darryl Brown starred with 95 off 109 balls. Picture: www.sportsshots.org.uk |
Slough were then blown away by paceman Angus Livingstone's first five-wicket haul as he took 5-18 after Will Eason (3-19) made the early inroads as the hosts crashed to 82 all out.
With the large outfield making boundaries hard to come by, Brown and Sehgal rotated the strike well during their partnership to keep the scoreboard ticking over. Brown was the first to fifty - his third half-century in four innings this season - and he was soon followed by Sehgal as they combined to put Horspath in a strong position.
Their excellent partnership was finally broken when Brown was adjudged lbw in the 36th over with the score on 164. It surpassed the club's previous best of 145 for the third wicket which Rameez Raja (102no) and Robbie Eason (48) had put on against Cookham Dean in June 2016.
As so often happens after a large stand, Sehgal followed shortly afterwards to leave Horspath 175-4, with the final overs featuring some frantic action as the visitors took their total past the 200-mark for the loss of three more wickets.
It may not have seemed a daunting target, but in the conditions it soon became clear just how challenging it was as the visitors got to work with the ball. Horspath's opening attack of Will Eason and Graham Beer gave the Slough batsmen few scoring opportunities, and the breakthrough came in the fifth over. Eason found the edge of Yaqoot Rafiq's bat and Will Hawtin held the catch behind the stumps to make it 13-1.
Beer was next to strike when Sheridon Gumbs was caught by Livingstone for what would prove to be the hosts' top score of 14. Three wickets then fell with the score on 39. Livingstone struck with his third ball to shatter Mohammed Avas Anwar's stumps. And in the next over, Eason picked up wickets with consecutive deliveries, with Hamza Arif caught behind and Tejas Akavarapu lbw.
Horspath were well on top, and Livingstone struck twice in quick succession to leave Slough 58-7 by rushing one through Naveed Akhtar's defence before trapping Zain Ishaq lbw. Four runs later, young off-spinner Alfie Turner got in on the act by bowling Aashir Zaib.
Livingstone, who had taken three wickets in the last over to pull off a thrilling two-run win over Chesham a week earlier, was causing the Slough batsmen plenty of problems with his pace and he polished off the innings by having Nadeem Syed caught by Beer, before bowling Syed Waqar Ali Shah.
It was all over inside 28 overs and the win sees Horspath jump up to eighth place in the pooled table and puts Lloyd Belcher's side in contention for a spot in the end-of-season plays-offs. Livingstone, meanwhile, is the league's second leading bowler in this truncated season with 12 victims - one behind Henley's Tom Nugent, who has bowled 15 more overs.
The team are also on their most successful run since the later stages of the 2016 season when they reeled off five straight wins on the way to becoming Division 2 champions. With the 2nd, 3rd and 4th XIs also posting big wins in the Cherwell League, it was the second time in three weekends that the club has recorded a full house of victories.
Posted by: Russ