Captain Joel Hughes praised the performance of his team at Harman Drive even though they failed to claim a victory

North Middlesex captain Joel Hughes was frustrated not to see his team pick up a win at Brondesbury in the Middlesex County League Premier Division on Saturday.

After being stuck into bat and declaring on 278-9, the visitors then reduced the hosts to 114-6.

Unfortunately they could only claim one more scalp as Brondesbury batted out for the draw and finished on 219-7.

Hughes said: “From the position we were in, it was pretty disappointing not to win because we had 25 to 26 overs to get the last four wickets.

“The performance on a whole was good as we were put in on a wet wicket and a surprisingly wet wicket compared to the rest of the ground.

“In those situations, the toss becomes really important and having fought our way up to 278-9, I thought it was a great effort.”

Tom Nicoll top scored for North Middlesex with 67 off 65 balls as they recovered from 159-6 to set 279 to win.

Evan Flowers (40) and James Parslow (61) also continued their fine form with pivotal scores at the top of the order.

When Brondesbury collapsed from 93-1 to 114-6, North Middlesex scented blood, but just couldn’t get through the tail despite the best efforts of Izhan Khan (4-59)

“It was still doing a bit for us with the new ball, so on reflection we needed to get into them a bit more there,” said Hughes.

“Izhan bowled really well again to pick up four wickets and I was proud of the way we played, so it just added to the disappointment we couldn’t get the win.

“The wicket was pretty flat at the end, so it was a real shame we weren’t able to bat on it then.”

Hughes went on to praise the addition of Khan to the squad with the bowler catching the eye in recent weeks.

“Izhan has been a great find. He got five wickets for us in the cup against Shepherds Bush and another four on Saturday,” said North Middlesex’s captain.

“There are good signs, but to have outplayed Brondesbury in all areas and not won was disappointing.”