Wokingham's fate sealed by Steel ton

Pete Phillips • Published 26 Aug 2009 09:00 0 Comments

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WOKINGHAM'S Dan Reddyhough admits his side are 'playing for pride now' after last weekend's six-wicket defeat at rivals Reading all but condemned them to the drop in Division Two West of the Home Counties League.

With just two games to go, second bottom Wokingham sit 34 points from safety and, with a trip to leaders Aston Rowant to come this weekend, Reddyhough concedes that his side look doomed to drop back into the Thames Valley League for the first time since 2005.

He said: "If we're honest with ourselves that's probably the end of our hopes. It's out of our hands now and we're just playing for pride, but we'll try and finish strongly.

"We'll put 100 per cent effort into the last two games and try to put a dent in Aston Rowant's title ambitions this weekend.

"It's easy to identify where we had problems this season as we just didn't put enough runs on the board on a consistent basis.

"The bowlers have done pretty well this season but it's only in the last three weeks that we've shown any real consistency with the bat."

Wokingham's batsmen posted a decent score of 238 against Reading last weekend but their bowlers were then blown away by a rampant Simon Steel who blasted a brilliant unbeaten 156 off 133 balls to see his side to their fifth win in seven games.

Last Saturday's game had been billed as a 'must-win encounter' for Wokingham and they looked to be heading for a strong total when Simon Myles (37) and Sunny Grover (75) came together after the loss of two early wickets.

However, Myles' dismissal before lunch after being bowled by David Hartley sparked a flurry of wickets as Wokingham slipped to 128-5.

Grover and Reddyhough (49) rebuilt things after the break with an 87-run partnership but when they fell in quick succession, Wokingham's innings lost a bit of momentum and they were eventually bowled out for 238. Neil Saker was the pick of the Reading attack with 4-36.

Wokingham removed Saker for a duck early on to leave Reading on 0-1 in reply, before the game turned on a pivotal moment.

Pete Browitt was unable to hang on to a catch which would have removed Steel and left Reading 0-2 and the home side's number three made Wokingham pay for that miss in devastating fashion as he blasted his way to a match-winning century.

He shared a 160-run third wicket partnership with Shelvin Gumbs (50 off 50 balls), blasting 21 fours and a six in his blistering innings. Wokingham looked a dejected side as Reading cruised home on 240-4 and their misery was complete when Adam England broke his finger after diving to stop the ball in the field.

"We felt our score was about par, although we lost some momentum when Sunny and myself got out in quick succession," admitted Reddyhough.

"Simon Steel then batted very well in reply and took the game away from us, but we had a great chance to get him early on.

"Pete Browitt has got one of the safest pair of hands in the club but put him down before he'd got off the mark and he made us pay after that.

"Our heads went down a bit once Steely and Shelvin got going and we capitulated a bit towards the end which is unlike us.

"We tried to rally the troops but we'd lost Adam by that point with his broken finger and only had 10 men on the field so it all went a bit flat.

"But you have to give credit to Steely, it was a fantastic knock."

Skipper Martin Bushell, Ryan Hiscoe and Ruki Soza all come back into contention for this weekend's game against Rowant after missing the Reading clash.

There remains an outside chance that Wokingham might still avoid the drop as the league are investigating an alleged confrontation in the recent Basingstoke & North Hants versus Aston Rowant game which might result in both sides being docked points.

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