READING dropped to the foot of the Thames Valley League Division One table after losing their bottom-of-the-log home clash with Stoke Green by seven wickets, writes Richard Ashton.

The visitors chose to field and made an early breakthrough when Curran Gaur was caught by Zulfi Butt off Kashir Abassi for a duck, and when fellow opener Pav Chima was removed by Saqlain Basharat for 20, Reading were 47-2.

Tariq Khan (42) and Billy Rogers (51) steadied the ship and helped the home side into a position of strength at 119-2, but the departure of Khan, pictured below, heralded a dramatic collapse.

Of the bottom seven in the batting order, only Ian Slatcher (16) made double figures, with Irham Mughal (3-23) and Gagan Singh (3-39) running through the side as Reading lost eight wickets for 47, eventually bowled out for 166.

Shahbaz Choudhry made an early breakthrough when he had Dan Simpson caught behind by Firaz Amjad with the score on 23, but Kabir Parmar and Karanpreet Singh put on 66 for the second wicket.

It was Amjad (2-38) – relieved of keeping duties – who made the breakthrough, Singh caught by Sunny Jheeta, and he also accounted for Parmar, held by Chima.

That was as good as it got for the hosts, though, as Gagan Singh and Luqman Butt put on an untroubled 46 to ease their side to victory in 36.4 overs.

Reading travel to Slough 2nds in the first of their traditional ‘timed’ games this coming Saturday.

In Division 4a, third-bottom Reading 2nds (81) were thrashed by five wickets at Theale & Tilehurst (82-5).

Reading 3rds (141-9) lost by 46 runs at Bradfield (187-9) in Division 6b.

In Division 9a, Reading 4ths (171-5) ensured it was not a clean sweep of defeats as they beat Thatcham Town 4ths (170-7) by five wickets.