Middle order failure seals 2's fate on Reed Road

The last game of the limited overs format was away to Reed IIIs at Freman School, Buntingford on a glorious sunny day. Nobody was surprised when the skipper once again called incorrectly and we were asked to bat. Lee Crocker (1) didn't last long and was caught driving a ball that wasn't quite there high to mid off (8/1, 2nd over). Zaf Basit and Andrew Teague batted sensibly in the face of accurate bowling and the score had progressed to 37 when Zaf (24) was unlucky to be caught behind miscuing a pull. Andrew (7) followed in the next over, mishitting a full toss back to bowler Martin Johnson, to leave us on 38/3 in the 14th over. New batsmen Piers Jenkins and Anand Kumar looked settled from the start, with Anand continuing his fine form and Piers batting as only Piers can but looking in no trouble. The pair rattled along at 5 an over, taking the score to 109 until calamity struck. Whilst running what was a comfortable second run, Anand collided with Piers, who happened to be running backwards at the time....., fell and just failed to make his ground to end a solid innings of 39 (109/4, 28th over). Sunny Raval (1) was then tempted by the loopy slow bowling of Steve Hughes and spooned an easy catch to mid on and Piers (17) was well caught by a diving catch at point two balls later (110/6, 30th over). Once again, two new batsmen were at the crease and Pulkit Ohja (1) didn't last long, popping the ball back to Reed captain Marcus Baker for a simple caught and bowled. Ali Javed (0) knicked behind unwisely driving Baker's excellent outswing 4 balls later and the Village innings was in tatters at 122/8 in the 32nd over. Rachit Chawla (15) then gently drove another Baker outswinger to point (127/9) to bring the third set of new batsmen, Dave Flavell and Andrew Godfrey, to the crease. With 17 overs of the innings left, the plan was to stick around and hit the bad balls. The slow bowling of Steve Hughes was quite hittable on what was clearly a flat pitch, and waiting for the inevitable wayward ball was a profitable tactic, whilst defending or leaving everything else. The last pair pushed the score on at 4-ish an over without much effort until Flavell (26) became Johnson's second caught and bowled victim, both from full tosses with Godders on 14* and the Village innings finishing on what we hoped might be a defendable total of 170 in the 44th over.

We needed to take quick wickets to stand a chance the first breakthrough came in the 7th over from a sharp catch by Sunny at gully off Ali's bowling (14/1). The second wicket fell in Sunny Raval's first over, with the Reed number 3 caught behind by Zaf (30/2, 13th over), followed in the next over by the new batsman, again caught at gully by another sharp catch from Sunny at gully off Pulkit's bowling (31/3), putting us in a reasonable position. Experienced Reed opener Paul Garrott and captain Marcus Baker had other ideas, and pushed the score along at 4 an over, taking the score past 100 and only giving one chance, a difficult diving catch which Anand made a great effort for but could not quite hang onto, to give us our first drop of the season. A tiring Garrott (80) was eventually bowled by Anand (140/4, 37th over) with Baker (60) bowled by Flavell (158/5) but the Village total was overhauled in 43 overs.

We clearly didn't bat well enough on a wicket that did little for the bowlers, with 9 batsmen caught out. The middle order failed fairly spectacularly, with the innings going from a comfortable 109/3 to a catastrophic 127/9 in the course of 5 overs, sparked by a totally unnecessary and probably match changing run out with both batsmen looking untroubled and in control. Our bowlers toiled in the heat, and despite a few early wickets, the 4th wicket partnership of 109 got Reed close enough to the inadequate target that we posted. At the end of the first 5 50 over games we lie in 9th place with a single win, one cancellation and three losses. All to play for, but we will have to bat better as the season progresses.

Reed III 30 points, Mill Hill Village II 10 points