Column - Abbott Langley's cricket seconds' defeat at Reed

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Abbots, with three top players missing, greeted Reed at Manor House Grounds where they once again won the toss and elected to bowl first, with Ollie Sills and James Allan opening.

The first wicket came from Ben Chase, with Mahin Kohli catching Kalum Ward for 11.

Things looked promising when Bradley Finch was given a chance to bowl and had William Heslam caught behind without scoring, then bowled Tom Greaves for 19, score 3/76.

Then came the left-arm spin of Rajiv Purohit, who removed opener Thomas Thorpe for the top score of 46 followed by Jack Caine for 1 and Max Sanderson for 17, giving him figures of 3/17.

Finch then had Josh Heslam caught behind for 4, leaving him with 3/37.

Allan came back on and bowled pretty tidily, ending with Sills pulling off a spectacular flying one-handed catch to send Jack Tidey back to the hutch, the latter proceeding to bowl James Heslam for 23.

With the score 9/148, 9 overs to go and one wicket needed, the final pair dug in, with a stand of 40 before Chase took the last wicket, that of Lee Johnson for 15, and Reed ending 188 all out.

After tea, Luke Mortimore and Michael Burgess took to the table, only to see the latter, caught in two minds as to which stroke to play, hitting his first ball to Thomas Thorpe and Abbots losing their first wicket for 1.

Vivaan Verma faced just 15 balls before Matt Giblin bowled him for 13, followed very swiftly by Pujan Vyas, trapped LBW for 1.

Mortimore became wicket number 4, bowled by Tom Greaves, with Finch becoming Giblin's fourth wicket (4/36).

Allan and Kohli slowly added 17, only for Allan to be adjudged LBW for 6.

Sills patiently batted on, losing Kohli LBW for 24, and Chase, bowled for 7, before he too was bowled with the top score of 36.

With Harshal Shah out for 12, Abbots were left stranded 59 runs short, all out for 129 in the 37th over.

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