League Week 15

[mangeshakerkar]

Team 1 to play against Freuchie away

1. Mangesh A
2 Tom W
3. Anand V
4. Asif M
5. JP R
6. Luke H
7. Melvyn C
8. Paul H
9. Sam F
10. Neil Y
11. Bharat N

Please reach Murrayfield hotel by 11 15 sharp.

maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&q=eh12%206hn%20to%20KY15%207NW&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wl

[sambo]

Hands healing up okay - with a bit of strapping and some sensible recovery time for the next coupla days - should be all good to go on Saturday!!

[alacey]

2s team to play against Clackmannan at Roseburn. Meet 12.15pm for 1pm start.

In no particular order:

Andrew Lacey
Sutha Rangaswamy
Norman Baikie
Rafic Settu
Adam Scott
Adeel Raza
Chris Banks
Ian Shiels
Alan Patterson
Vimal D'Souza
Romil Metha

Good luck to all.

Cheers,

Andrew

[melv]

Good stuff, Sam. Staple it together if you have to!

[phil]

Here is the 3's team for the match at home to SMRH 2's

Match is on the artificial so please remember to bring trainers (no spikes)

Team in no particular order:

Phil Hawkins (c + wk)
Amir Mirza
Subhash Yernani
Finlay Ross
Shehryar Shah
Graham Watson
Paul Leonard
Lindsay Towns
Adi Choudhury
Vishwak Sensed
Dave Clifford

Good luck to all the teams this week.

Cheers

Phil

[wheels]

1s beat Freuchie by 54 runs - MDCC 231 for 7 (Luke 64, Asif 36, Maggy 20-odd, plus valuable runs from Hubbs and Melv at the end), Freuchie 177 all out - Crichton 75, Melv 3 wickets, Bharat and Tom 2 each). Heavy losses for 2s and 3s, don't know about 4s at the moment.

Tom

[Mr Belly]

4s had no game !

2s poor run continues with a 8 wicket defeat to top of the table Clackmannan.
We certainly had the poorer conditions to bat in, with a lively pitch and ball hooping around under the clouds. But again the batting fragility was all too easily exposed by a strong Clacks bowling unit with only Banksy 15 and Vimal 20 offering much resistance though Alan P and Rommell did get us into 3 figures with a wee wag of the tail.
A total of 119 was unlikely to trouble Clacks - particularly as the cloud-cover disappeared and the track became more benign. And so it proved.......

MDAFS II's - 119 ao (43ovrs)
V D'Souza 20
C Banks 15
C Black 4-30
A Oliver 3-21
T Mehboob 2-28

CCCC 122 for 2 - 19? overs
G Oliver 46
C Black 52*

1 wkt for Adam and a run out for JNB, flicking a straight drive by Black onto the stumps at the non-strikers end leaving young Oliver stranded and 4 short of what would have been a fine half-century.

[Mr Belly]

View from the opposition.... lifted off Clacks website.... (now, they know how to do proper match reports....)

By Dave Watkins
A muggy, overcast day greeted the Clackmannan Cougars as they travelled to the capital’s Roseburn Park to try and maintain their charge for promotion against Murrayfield DAFS.

Craig Black once again called correctly at the toss and had no hesitation in asking the home side to bat first on a pitch that looked bowler-friendly.

Rizwan Ashraf opened and immediately hit his metronomic rhythm and the Murrayfield openers swished at thin air time and time again as they were defeated by the seam movement. With Keith Hefer running a tight ship at the other end Murrayfield’s innings began at a funereal rate, with just 12 runs from the first 8 overs.

Black took the ball in the tenth over and after conceding an early boundary he dismissed the opener Banks with a short ball, Taylor taking a regulation chance off the outside edge.

Tariq Mehboob took the ball at the other end after Ashraf’s opening spell of four maidens in five overs and he struck immediately as Rangaswamy chopped an big in swinger onto his off stump.

The change bowlers strung together the maidens and the pressure told on Scott as he edged Black behind to give Taylor his second catch. Two overs later the skipper took his third scalp of the day as he produced the perfect looping slower ball. Baikie was through the shot with the ball barely half way down the wicket and the ball clattered into his timbers. This left the home side 40/4 in the 19th over.

Lacey and D’Souza battled hard to repair the damage but the Murrayfield captain couldn’t resist having a hook at another brutal Black bumper and he toe ended high into the slips region. The familiar Taylor cry once again filled the Sunday strollers and their pets with terror but he took the catch comfortably to remove the fifth wicket.

Shiels joined D’Souza at the crease and they bedded in for the long haul as the run rate remained pedestrian at 2.5 per over, with Oliver racing through some economical overs of spin and Black, taking a particular liking to the conditions, sending down his ten overs in one spell.

Oliver’s pressure finally paid dividends in his eighth over when D’Souza played and missed, slid marginally out of his ground and Taylor punished him with a sharp stumping. The pair repeated the trick in the spinner’s next over as Shiels advanced down the pitch, yorked himself, and Taylor once again showed no mercy.

At 83/7 after 36 overs Murrayfield desperately needed some impetus and Settu was intent on providing it, smashing his second ball from Oliver over cow corner for six towards the North stand of the rugby ground. However Mehboob soon re-asserted Clackmannan’s control as Raza looped a simple catch to Hefer in the covers.

One over later Settu tried to repeat his six from Oliver’s previous over but he couldn’t get it over Black at mid-off and Murrayfield were 95/9.

With Clackmannan in a comfortable position, the silver-tongued Hefer sweet talked his captain into allowing him to bowl some leg spinners but the absence of Watkins behind the stumps seemed to unnerve the South African and after three wides and amid much sblack personing the experiment was abandoned.

The tenth wicket partnership hung on doggedly as the Clackmannan fielders basked in the newly arrived sunshine. Eventually Mehta slashed a short ball from Hefer to Graham Oliver at point to wrap up the innings for 119.

With the pitch now bathed in sunshine it seemed sure to flatten out and so it proved as the Clackmannan openers Graham Oliver and Noor Jhangir happily played through the line of the ball and got the reply off to a speedy start.
Boundaries disappeared regularly through mid-on and over the bowler’s head and the sting was soon drawn from the Murrayfield bowling.

In the eighth over Jhangir perished as he attempted to launch one into the stadium and Clackmannan were 32/1.

Black joined Oliver at the wicket and the pair stepped on the gas even harder, murdering anything short of a length and continuing to hit through the line of anything full.

After a crushing straight six over the bowler’s head Oliver looked set for a classy 50 but he was run out at the non-striker’s end as the bowler Baikie got a finger on Black’s straight drive and the opening batsman’s desperate throw of the bat was not enough to save him.

With the score on 99, Hutchinson came to the crease and steadfastly refused to score any runs with the skipper closing in on his fifty. As the runs required went into single figures it became clear that Black was planning something as he defended a gentle full toss to mid-off. The next ball he switched stance and clubbed a left handed pitching wedge over the backpedalling mid-off and then hit the winning runs with a reverse sweep for four to bring up his fifty.

This was a convincing performance from first to last and leaves Clackmannan within touching distance of back-to-back promotions. Black takes home the much coveted man-of-the-match/thingy-of -the-day double. For 4/30 with the ball, 52 not out with the bat, allowing his new ball bowler to send down leg-spin on a quickie’s wicket and running out his opening batsman with a carelessly well-timed straight drive.

[phil]

more details about the 3's game on saturday, which was probably my most interesting game to date.

So with our opponents SMRH 2's 3rd and MUFS back in 5th we needed to win this game to have any realistic chance of gaining promotion this season. I was obviously happy when i won the toss on what was a slightly damp astroturf pitch, overcast conditions and an ourfield that had seen better days at Roseburn. With this in mind i elected to bowl first with what i felt was a relatively strong bowling line up.

Once again Paul and Amir opened the bowling. Both bowlers were steady and kept the run rate low. Amir in particular was getting the ball to swing like a banana and was unlucky not to take a wicket with a couple of drop catches going down. Paul on the hand was bowling economically but was not showing the form which has made him the most consistent 3's bowler this season. So after 10 overs SMRH 2's were 32-0 with the two openers resolute in defence but still offering the odd chance. I replaced Paul with SuBo in the 11th over and it quickly became apparent that SuBo was not fully fit. After 3 overs i had to take him off as the injury to his leg was meaning he couldn't bowl to the high standard we have been used to. This was not ideal but at the other end i did have Amir continuing to trouble both the openers. Finally in Amir's last over he trapped Coltherd LBW for 32. Well deserved after an excellent spell of disciplined bowling. This left the score at 79 for 1 after 18 overs which was obviously not the start i was hoping for after winning the toss.
By this point Vishwak had come on to replace SuBo and despite a wide crazy first over he settled into a good rhythm resulting in some excellent swing bowling. At the other ends i turned to the spin of Lindsay to see if a change of pace could get us a wicket. Unfortunately neither bowler was helped by our inability to hold onto catches. Vishwak in particular was very unfortunate not to take a wicket.
So with my spin experiment not working i turned to the youthfulness of Finlay who rewarded me when he Trapped Duguid plum in front on 32 with some lovely line and length bowling. This was in the 30th over and SMRH 2s were now on 128-2. next in was captain Gibson and both he and opener Hay who was now on 50 odd after making us pay for dropping him at least 4 times were starting to get on top. Finlay then managed to get another breakthrough when Lindsay took an excellent Diving catch at Long off to remove captain Gibson.
Unfortunately this bought SMRH 2s powerful aussie to the crease who had already hit a quickfire 44no earlier in the season against us. He dispatched his first ball into the river for 6 which was slightly worrying for the last 10 overs. Once Finlay had bowled his five it was left to Adi and Dave C to bowl as tightly as possible to Hay who was now looking extremely comfortable and Foley (the aussie) who was looking in pretty good touch!
To be honest in the situation i felt that Adi and Dave did a good job, despite some horrible looking figures. Although his favourite shot was a slog to cow corner the aussie Foley also had some brilliant textbook shots and we were being given a taste of our own medicine which Dazza serves out on a regular basis! So when the 45 overs were up SMRH 2's had reached 256-3 which was not quite in my plans but hats off to the SMRH's top 5 who were all decent bats who punished us for not taking our catches. Had we taken just a handful of the chances given i believe things may have been very different!

So we began the chase with myself and Vishwak opening the batting. Things began ok with some careful batting and some wayward (legside) bowling from young muir. at the other end Crispin was bowling very tightly and was proving difficult to get away. However disaster struck in the 9th over with the score on 29, when Vishwak was trapped LBW for 4 by Crispin when looking like he was just about to find his feet. Unfortunately i was also trapped LBW for 10 by Crispin when feeling in pretty good touch. So we were 32-2 after 11 overs. 2 wickets quickly became 4 when Graham was trapped LBW to one that didn't get up at all and Lindsay was run out by an awesome direct hit which left him miles from his ground.
This left Shehryar and Adi at the crease who set about rebuilding the innings. Some watchful batting from both and a few explosive shots from Shehryar got us up to 79 off 26 overs. Both bats were looking well set but Shehryar was then caught at fine leg hitting a ball right down the fielders throat. Amir came and went quickly with an unfortunate LBW decision in which he was adjudged to be out despite hitting it. Unfortunately Lindsay umpiring at the time didn't pick up on this. This left Adi and Dave C to battle along with a mammoth 170 required off the last 15 overs. With the continued tight bowling of SMRH 2s particular from the leading wicket taker in the division Charlie Butcher this became a battle for bonus points. When Adi departed on 26 after an excellent innings it was left to Dave and Finlay to win us some more points and both obliged with some excellent batting and running between the wickets. With the score 111-7 after 40 overs Dave in particular took the attack to the SMRH 2s bowlers and started dispatching the ball all over the ground. In the final 5 overs he and Finlay added 40 to get us over 150 runs and secure us 5 batting points. It was pleasing to see a fighting partnership despite the match being over as every point counts so well done to Dave and Fin.

So with our 45 overs up we had been defeated by 105 runs. However despite the loss this was an enjoyable game which was played in great spirits by both teams, 6 LBWs in the match says it all! Remember guys catches win matches!

P Leonard 6-0-26-0
A Mirza 9-2-27-1
S Yernani 3-0-26-0
V Sensed 9-2-36-0
L Towns 4-0-26-0
F Ross 5-0-27-2
A Choudhury 6-0-57-0
D Clifford 3-0-23-0

Sensed LBW 4
Hawkins LBW 10
Watson LBW 2
Towns Run Out 5
Shah Caught 26
Choudhury Caught 26
Mirza LBW 1
Clifford 37 N.O.
Ross 6 N.O.
Yernani DNB
Leonard DNB