Dattani's the destroyer

Amit Dattani left Hertford a broken team to make it 13 wickets in a week for Stevenage's new spin king.

Stevenage flattened the hosts on their way to a comprehensive 146-run victory which maintains their 100 per cent record for completed games.

A green, damp and soft wicket saw Hertford win the toss and take to the field with great expectations.

Stevenage's opening pair of Gary Brown and Tanweer Sikandar got through the opening 10 overs at three an over before stepping on the gas.

This culminated in Brown and Sikandar's second consecutive 100-run partnership, this one achieved in an impressive 24 overs.

Having reached his fifty with his second six, Sikandar was the first wicket to fall, well held at first slip having got to 57.

Unfortunately they lost Brown for 49 just prior to lunch and then suffered a middle order wobble immediately after the break with Ashley Bayes gone for 15 and Nas Ahmed and Navin Seneviratne cheaply in quick succession.

This collapse took Stevenage from 132-1 to 147-5 but Syed Ali Kazmi was joined by the cool head of captain David Carr with the pair sharing a 54-run partnership in 11 overs.

Kazmi dominated the scoring rate, the pick of his three sixes a towering inside out cover drive.

His fifty came from just 54 deliveries as another impressive batting display saw Stevenage end 239 all out.

It was apparent from early in the Hertford reply that Stevenage had more than enough runs on the board in tricky batting conditions.

The Hertford openers never came to terms with Sikandar's control of line and length and the turn and bounce of Dattani.

After losing two early wickets, it was basically the Dattani (19-6-58-6) show with a late cameo from Azhar Ali (7.4-4-9-3) and a superb supporting cast of Stevenage fielders.

Hertford slipped to 24-4 and the only halfway meaningful partnership came between Hertford skipper Darby (43no) and Ray who guided them to tea.

The introduction of Ali after the interval broke the resistance, and Stevenage never looked back.

Hertford were tottering on the brink at 64-8 and soon lost their ninth wicket. Mohammed, coming in at 11 and with 50 minutes of time to bat out for a draw, had obviously seen enough, so decided to tee-off against Ali.

Sikandar, who was stationed at backward point, sprinted and launched himself into a full-length dive to pluck the ball out of the air with his left hand just inches above the ground to seal a resounding Stevenage win.

* The seconds went down by 76 runs despite 40 from Russell Hann and the thirds lost by seven runs to Langleybury thirds with four wickets for John Mould.

The fourths lost by six wickets as only Craig Whitworth (48) contributed to a total of 84.

Stevenage fifths lost by nine runs in a low-scoring match, while the sixths had a hard-fought draw.

Chasing 177, they were five short with five wickets left when overs ran out. Chris Welch (73) and 14-year-old Jack Nevill (40no) added 133 for the fourth wicket.

* Stevenage made it three wins from three in the Millman Sunday League with a good win away in Luton against Kokni.

Asked to bat first in trying conditions, David Carr and Chis Whitworth put on 105 in 27 overs, before Carr was dismissed for 67.

Whitworth was run out for 51 but handy contributions throughout the middle order topped the Stevenage total out at 227 from the 45 overs.

Dylan Slater's 31 was the innings that others batted around, specifically Conor Hayward and Scott Davies who both made 22.

Stevenage's bowlers faced an early blitz with 70 on the board in 10 overs.

They then took wickets at steady intervals to gradually take the game away their hosts.

The matchwinning spell was provided by Whitworth to complete a solid all-round performance.

His classy spell of off-spin netted him 5-7 from 6.4 overs which went a long way to securing Stevenage's 54-run victory.