Sonning Innings
for ( Overs)
Match Report
Cricket played in sunshine, what more can you ask for especially after the wash out of last week.
Sonning won the toss and elected to bat first. In the absence of regular opener and late drop outs Steve Simmon was given the duty to open with Naqash Tahir.
After losing make shift opener Steve Simmons with scores only in single figures, Naqash and Asad Feroz steadied the innings with some good batting to keep the Sonning afloat. They both scored runs at a healthy run rate and soon Sonning passed 50 without any trouble. On 71 when it looked like Sonning were heading towards a big first inngs score. Asad (27) played one in the air and was caught at point. After the fall of the second wicket Sonning collapsed to 113 for 8 inside 25 overs. This left the lower order with an impossible task to make the score compatible. In came Khalil Ur Rehman, playing his first game for the club and Jack Mott. Together they put a valuable 27 runs partnership. Jack played some good shots down the ground and was ably supported by Khalil. Jack (17) eventually missed a straight one, Amer Khan another new member of the club joined Khalil in the middle. Khalil sensing he is running out of partners decided to attack and scored moved along briskly to 176 when Amer was caught trying one shot too many. Last wicket added valuable 20 runs before Phil Wilding was bowled to leave Khalil stranded on 45. It was nevertheless a good come back and a competitive score on this pitch.
For the first seventeen overs Sonning kept the game under control, with a run out and a deserved wicket for Naqash, who was definitely the pick of the bowlers along with Phil Wilding, producing a score of 52 for 4. Phil was first change and he bowled an impressive spell of 7-3-13-3. Amer continued the pressure on West Reading batsmen with an accurate spell of 8-2-24-1. Unfortunately, runs started to leak when WR decided to counter attack and soon the score crossed 150-5. Captain Waqas brought himself for the first time this season but couldn’t build the pressure early on, he came back strongly and took 3 wickets but it was too late as WR won the match by 2 wickets.
All in all a great game – nice to see young player Jack and Amer contributing well. Khalil had an outstanding debut for the club and was deserved man of the match.
