MISTLEY'S cricketers pulled off a stunning victory to upset the Marshall Hatchick Two Counties Championship leaders.

They won by eight wickets against pacesetters Elmstead in a dramatic first division encounter at New Road on Saturday.

Skipper Daniel Goff was the undoubted hero, taking three wickets and then hitting a brilliant 128.

Elmstead had won the toss and chose to bat first.

Opening bowler Tim Scott struck first for Mistley, bowling Jon Butcher for five when the total was just 19.

The next partnership took the total to 62, when captain Goff had counterpart Aidan O’Brien caught by Stuart Dove for 25.

Soon after, Bruce Leeke took a diving caught and bowled to dismiss Mark Perrin for 24.

Mistley continued to take wickets regularly, with Dove catching Dan White from the bowling of Leeke and wicketkeeper James Garwood catching Peter Webster off the bowling of Phil Palmer.

When Ashan Athurkoralage was spectacularly run out by a direct hit from Adrian Stockton, the total stood at 104 for six - a great position for Mistley.

Ryan Vickery and Jordan Elliott set about rebuilding the innings for Elmstead and added 63 before Vickery, on 43, hit a full toss from Dove straight to James Stamatis.

Stationed at midwicket, he made no mistake in taking the catch.

With Tim Scott returning to the attack, Stamatis took another catch to dismiss Elliott for 32 and Goff had Paul Gates lbw for 12 and Michael Burle caught near the boundary when James Scott took an excellent low catch.

Mistley were pleased to have bowled out the top team in the division for 186 from 47 overs, thanks to a good bowling and fielding performance.

Tim Scott took two wickets for just 28 runs from his ten overs, Goff three for 34 from six overs, Leeke two for 33 from ten overs, Palmer one for 28 from ten overs and Dove bowled six overs for just 12 runs, capturing the wicket of top run-scorer Vickery.

Mistley’s response suffered an early setback when Ashley Uren was out lbw for one, with the total on just two, and this brought James Scott to the crease to join Goff.

With Goff keen to attack the bowling from the start, Scott was more careful as the two set about chasing the required total.

They rotated the strike, taking frequent singles as well as regularly hitting boundaries, with both batsmen striking the ball well on a typically good batting wicket.

Goff reached his hundred at more than a run a ball and the partnership had added 181 runs, within four of the target, when Goff was bowled trying to finish with a big shot, having scored 128.

His huge knocked included 18 fours and four sixes.

One of Goff’s sixes landed on the pavilion roof and remained embedded in the tile.

Scott hit the winning runs in the next over to finish with 56 not out, including eight fours - his second 50 in two weeks.

This secured Mistley a comfortable win, reaching their target of 187 in 34.1 overs for the loss of just two wickets.

Having won two weeks in a row, the valuable league points lifted Mistley above Worlington.

However, with only 16 points separating four teams, they need to maintain their winning ways.