Reading gave an impressive performance in the season opener - a Berkshire cup match away at Peppard. Peppard won the toss and chose to bowl. Aarav and Raheel weathered a good opening spell by the Peppard bowlers and ran some good early singles. Raheel was a little unlucky to be out run out by an excellent piece of fielding by Connor Lamsdale who sent the stumps flying with a direct hit from distance. Aarav soon followed also run out.
Josh and Gaajuran steadied the ship with confident and aggressive batting and were quickly retired not out (30 and 32 ). Reading continued to build on this solid foundation - Ajmal with some lusty blows, and Arjun (24) and Manav (22 not out) batting with calm assurance to edge us up to a good total of 154 for 6.
Ashwyn and Raheel set the tone with a disciplined opening spell keeping Peppard under pressure, and Raheel soon made the breakthrough bowling Lamsdale with a beauty that clipped the top of off stump. Gaajuran (3 overs for 6 runs) and Josh (2 wickets) kept up the pressure.
We then put our spinners on, with Manav (1 wicket), Ajmal (good control), Aarav ( 1 wicket), and Arjun (economical) making it very hard for Peppard with good variation and turn. Ezra and Matthew both bowled tidy overs with Matthew getting some good swing.
Henry had an excellent game at wicketkeeper letting very little past him. He took a very good catch behind to dismiss the Peppard opener who was well set at the time. He also showed good skill in several stumping attempts which were ruled not out. All of the team worked hard in the field, but special mention goes to Raheel who took 2 very good catches in the deep, but also showed a very good arm with long accurate throws from the boundary.
All in all a very satisfactory performance and result with everyone in the team making good contributions.
Thanks also go to Srinny and Kari for umpiring, Nalin for scoring and Dave for taking the warm up.