Reeds Third Eleven showed their supreme grit and determination with one of the great come back wins in the side’s history. Maseeh Naeem won the toss making it 5 from 5 and elected to bat first at the Freman College pitch.
Marcus J.E. Baker once again opened the innings this time joined by Ben Bowles, both making steady starts. Higgs and Davies after some loose first overs began to bowl some frustratingly tight lines, as Reeds scoring options began to dry up. Bowles fell for 10 and was replaced in the middle by Ritchie Barlow who knew it was essential to build a partnership with Baker.
The pair relied on good calling and running to keep the scoreboard ticking over. All though the outfield remained quick the balls were just never there to be put away and closing in on 20 overs the score was only on 59. After Baker played on for 30 and Barlow bowled for 29 the middle order all chipped in with scores. Scott Caine looked in good form and added 29 with Ray Kingshott who was also playing the ball nicely. Caine 10 was replaced by Michael Naeem (18) who struck some nice boundaries.
Despite these contributions and cameos Reed were in a real danger of giving the opposition too many overs to chase with. Wickets were falling at a too regular interval leading up to the 40th over with the score on 147 when 3 fell in four balls including Kingshott for 18. Now 9 down with still another 13 overs to see through, captain Maseeh Naeem and Tom Walsingham made the most fruitful partnership of the innings. Both playing sensibly but also positively took Reed to 189 from 49 overs when Naeem was caught and bowled for 27, Walsingham was 21 not out.
Reed knew they had the potential to bowl out any side but equally knew that they could not give any width to the batsmen. Despite superb opening spells from Tom Walsingham (0-24) and George Garrott the visitors numbers 1 and 2 were still at the crease and making steady runs. Jack Caine was introduced bowling some fantastic deliveries but still Reed could not get themselves a wicket. They would have to wait for Maseeh Naeem to bring himself on to remove Morris (18) thanks to a catch at mid on from Rob Lankaster. But for Reed it was a case of out of the frying pan into the fire as Turlapati came to the crease with the score on 51, the left hander made runs although looking un-easy to the off spin of Lankaster (0-16).
No one seemed able to stop Davis and Turlapati, the visitors were cruising to victory and Reed could only claim to have 9 league points for their efforts. Cricket has many variables and one of the most immeasurable but important is luck, the opposition was on 141 for 1 and up till then Reed had had no luck in the field whatsoever.
But Reeds faith, energy and determination were well rewarded when a delivery from Barlow came off Davis (72) and gently rolled back onto the stumps. Reed had a narrow opening and it was George Garrott that led the way, in one of the best spells of bowling seen at Freman College. With the exception of Scott Caine’s catch removing Turlapati (42) the rest of Garrotts victims had their stumps demolished. Jack Caine came back for a second spell replacing Barlow (1-21) and joined in on the fun picking up 2 wickets. Although the opposition were a batsman short it was nonetheless an epic victory for Reed when the final wicket fell, the visitors going from 141 for 1 to 167 all out. George Garrott finished with figures of 10 overs, 5 maidens, 5 wickets for 30 runs.
