Reed plucked victory from the jaws of defeat against Hemel Hempstead. Last year’s Premiership side looked to have the game sewn up by reducing Reed to 105-7 chasing 161, but a battling partnership between Sean Tidey (36) and Mitchell Cooper (23 not out) saw Reed home by 2 wickets.
Hemel struggled to find any tempo against an economical Reed attack with Mitchell Cooper, Toby Fynn (10-1-23-1) and Reece Fitzgerald (10-1-31-0) all bowling a fine line and length. Only opener, Hemish Llangaratne with a patient 50 defied the bowlers. However, Tom Greaves turned the match with a second spell of 5 overs 4-14. Mitchell Cooper (9.3-1-29-4) then mopped up the tail in the last over to leave the hosts with a modest target.
However, Reed were soon in trouble at 4-2, needing the resilience of Rob Lankester and Chris Jackson to build their innings. When Jackson was out for 36 still needing 56 to win with 3 wickets remaining all seemed lost, but first Tidey and then Cooper dispatched the visitors’ attack to the boundary to secure a third league victory out of four and maintain Reed’s 2nd position in the Championship table.
Report submitted by Peter Wholley.
