Brondesbury batsman James Overy feels the Harman Drive side have had a useful boost of confidence after they triumphed without their talismanic overseas star Glenn Phillips and leapt into the top two places in Division Two.

Phillips is the leading scorer across all divisions of the Middlesex County League this season, having racked up 576 runs at an average of 72, but he was missing for Saturday’s home game against promotion rivals Indian Gymkhana – as was captain Adam Wilson.

Nevertheless, Sasha Ward struck 47 as the hosts posted 168, and Buddy Mason (4-26), Anthony Wilkinson (3-28) and Steven Male (3-21) then shared the wickets around to bowl Gymkhana out for 99 and secure a 69-run victory.

Overy stood in as skipper, before turning out for an MCC side alongside Phillips in a match against Nepal at Lord’s on Tuesday.

He said: “I think a few of the opposition teams sort of say we get Glenn to win the game and it’s all about him.

“He scores all our runs but it was quite good for a few of the other lads to show we don’t necessarily need him to win the games every week – and we were without Adam as well.

“We’re not too worried about what other people say but it was pretty nice for us to do it and prove to ourselves that we don’t need Glenn. We maybe forgot that actually we’re alright and we don’t have to rely on him to get 150 in 50 balls.”

Brondesbury’s victory took them above Gymkhana, Barnes and Hornsey into the top two places in a close-fought promotion battle – while Finchley are 18 points clear at the summit, the next five teams are separated by just seven points.

“Finchley have done well but I don’t think they’re guaranteed promotion, or to be champions,” said Overy. “We’ve got Hornsey out of the way and they’re probably the best side we’ve played.

“I think Indian Gymkhana will fall away in the limited-overs games. They’ve done well in this block but they started quite slowly so maybe that will be what happens at the end.

“Three weeks ago we played Enfield and the season sort of started from there. It’s going to be quite hard to catch teams up in the last few games, so it was important to get a couple of wins out of the last three games we’ve played.

Brondesbury’s next three matches are all against teams in the bottom four – Harrow St Mary’s, basement boys Wembley and Acton.

Overy said: “The last four are win-lose games so these next few are important – you’ve obviously got to take 10 wickets to win.

“I don’t think it matters too much [where they are in the table], most teams are pretty hard to beat. We’re just keen to stay on this roll we’ve got, and we’re still in the Middlesex Cup as well so it’s a good time to be playing at the moment.”