On a hot day at The Green, captain Ed Garrott won the toss and decided to bat first against the travelling Southgate Adelaide.
It was a tough start for the Reed top order when 6′ 6″ opening bowler Connor Johnson reduced Reed to 27 for 3. This brought Kallum Ward and Ed Garrott together and they set about rebuilding the innings by taking the singles on offer, running hard between the wickets and putting away the bad ball. Ward eventually fell for 62 with Mehmood (10 overs, 1 for 53) breaking the 135-run partnership, Southgate then brought back opening bowler Johnson who quickly picked up the wicket of Mike Robertson and finished with exceptional figures of 4 for 35 from his ten. Garrott was ably supported by Kieran Mckinna (19) as they pushed the score upwards of 250 with Garrott scoring his first century for the club eventually falling for 114 to the bowling of Mahmood. A flurry of late wickets meant that Reed finished 281 all out off 48.5 overs.
Reed’s opening bowlers Matt Giblin and U15 Charlie Walters started very economically keeping the Southgate openers below the required run rate, however they reached 50 without loss before Anirudh Vivekanandan entered the attack and took a wicket first ball. A couple of balls later Walters brilliantly ran out the other opener and Adelaide were reeling at 55 for 2. A 124-run partnership between J Coshlan and T Mahmood kept Southgate in the game however the run rate was continuing to climb. Spinner Matt Bowles removed Coshlan for 43 and he picked up a further 2 wickets to finish his 10 over with 3 for 59. Mahmood became the second centurion of the match finishing 110 not out, some great death bowling from Vivekanandan (3 for 47) and Walters meant that Reed ran out eventual winners by 19 runs when the visitors’ innings ended on 262 for 8.
Match Report Submitted by Paul Garrott
