Reed IIIs travelled to Southgate Adelaide IIIs on Saturday looking to get back to winning ways in their promotion push.
Captain Peter Baker won the toss and elected to field first on an overcast afternoon, and the decision looked to be a good one as Reed’s youthful opening attack of Mitchell Cooper (10-2-14-0) and Kallum Ward (7-2-15-0) kept the Adelaide runs scoring to a minimum. However, despite the slow scoring rate Adelaide’s opening batsmen, Arnold and Ashmore, looked solid. It took a stunning one handed catch at mid off from the athletic Maseeh Naeem off of the bowling of Marcus Baker (8-2-25-2) to remove Ashmore. The wily Ian Roberts (12-8-2-2) then got in on the act, bowling both Hanif and Arnold to leave the home side struggling at 40-3. Things then got even worse for Adelaide as Baker picked up his second wicket, trapping Gilbert plumb LBW.
Skipper Baker then tossed the ball to all rounder Ben Bowles, and Bowels set about ripping through the Adelaide middle order with his off breaks. Bowles ended up with figures of 12-4-31-4, including bowling the big hitting Elwood (31) to leave Southgate Adelaide 9 down for 103 in their allotted 47 Overs.
In reply Reed sent out Aidan Swain and Peter Baker to open their innings, only for Swain to be well caught for 6 off of the bowling of Ashmore. Tom Greaves and Baker then took up the challenge of steadying the Reed innings, and did so brilliantly as they put on a partnership of 58 before Baker went, caught off of the bowling of Riaz for 16. Greaves was looking in fine form, and was finding the boundary rope on a regular basis, as he was joined by Matt Bowles in the middle. The pair rotated the strike well, and Greaves combined this with some excellent strokes as he reached his 50 in style. Greaves eventually fell for a fine 53, but it mattered little as Bowles (13 Not Out) saw Reed home for a comprehensive 7 wicket victory soon after.
