League Week 16

[mangeshakerkar]

Team 1 to play against Kismet at roseburn

Mangesh A
Tom W
Regan B
JP R
Asif M
Paul H
Raj D
Melvyn C
Anand V
Sutha R
Bharat N

Please reach by 12:15 for 13:00 start.

All the best to all teams

[phil]

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

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

Team in no particular order:

Chris West (c + wk)
Amir Mirza
Dan Frear
Subhash Yernani
Finlay Ross
Shehryar Shah
Vishwak Sensed
Paul Leonard
Jon Jenner
Lindsay Towns
Vimal D'Souza

As you can see Westy will be captaining again. Please offer to help before and after the match to make his job as easy as possible.

Ill be contactable all weekend in case anyone has any problems.

Good Luck to all the teams

Cheers

Phil

[monty]

As I was on field captain I had better say something about the batting debacle that saw 3s lose by over 100 runs chasing 126!!

Dan has the scorebook but the short version is we bowled and fielded well to reduce Musselburgh 2nd XI from 74 for 2 at drinks to 126 all out. All bowled well with particular plaudits to the miserly Leonard and an excellent 3 for 14 for Finlay, a key wicket for Dan to get rid of their skipper thanks to one of two outstanding catches from Jon Jenner and then Bicycle Towns the scourge of Musselburgh weighed in with 3 for 2 to finish things off. Only one catch went to ground and it was an all round good performance in the field.
That was as good as it got however!!

Having just survived the first over we promptly lost two in the second and after that it was a procession against good but not brilliant bowling - just more than good enough for us today. After the initial chaos all our batsmen looked like rabbits caught in headlights it was left to Finlay and Subo to show the rest how to leave the ball and get out and on top of the swinging ball. However even they did not last that long and sadly we perished for an ignominious 22 all out.

One for the record books I am afraid!

Sorry folks! Fortunately Phil is back next week!!

[wheels]

Just about summoned up the strength to report back briefly on Saturday's debacle...

Kismet 118 for 8 (50 overs)
MDCC 60 all out (a lot less than 50 overs)

Excellent bowling and fielding display (Melv 2-17 off 10, Maggy a brilliant 3 for 11 off 10) restricted the visitors to 118 for 8, but the wheels came off spectacularly to the point that we were 20 for 9 at one stage before Paul and Bharat added a further 40 for the last wicket before Bharat was finally bowled, leaving Hubbs on 16 not out.

More details probably not to follow - I would say it was a competitive game played in an excellent spirit, but it wasn't, so I won't.

Next Saturday we host Marchmont, which was always likely to be a must-win game and now most certainly is. Promotion (and the title) still in our hands, but a number of batsmen need to take a look at their approach - reminding themselves as they do so that league games are 50 overs a side, not 10. 'Nuff said.

On a happier note, congrats to 4s on an excellent win at Largo - any sign of El Presidente's car yet? News of 2s yesterday at Boghall would also be welcome - particularly to find out exactly what sort of state Luke was in...and whether he was still wearing his crown and feather boa when he got to the Murrayfield (if he got to the Murrayfield).

Cheers
Tom

[Mr Belly]

News of 2s was a narrow loss by 2 wickets - off the last ball - in a lovely game played in excellent spirit, warm sunshine, a super tea (a little spartan for the veggies maybe, but splendid for the carnivores) on a decent track. Proper cricket this.

We batted first and posted 202-9 off our 50 overs. Banks hit a fine jug-avoiding 49, a clearly still heavily pished Luke 34, Belly 18, JNB a fair few (sorry Norm not seen the book since over 30!!) and bits and pieces from others. 202 was a good recovery after a middle order slump against an accurate bowling attack that got it to nip around a bit.

In defence of our total, unfortunantly the good balls missed the edge and bad ones were mercilessly despatched as the Westies started strongly at first. A good economical spell by Romil put the brakes somewhat on their innings, bowling in tandem with Adeel who bowled with good control and was unlucky not to get a crucial stumping of one of the WL young starlets. This proved key as he made the most of his reprieve to post 44 or so in an excellent stand with the WL skipper which had seemingly put the game beyond us as the required rate reduced down to 3 or so an over.
But then the game turns again.
In a cunning attempt to buy a wicket, Luke induces their skipper to hole out at mid-off to JNB and then JNB himself snaffles a double strike. With Belly joining JNB in the attack, the runs dry up as JNB takes another wicket. Now the pressure is fully on the West Lothian tailenders and what had seemed an unlikely chance of a win for MDAFS was now full on.
However it proved not to be as a simple-ish catching chance is spurned in the covers which would have left them with 1 wicket and about 12 or so runs to get, and the Westies played with sensible aggression to sneak home off the last ball.
A good contest and at least we proved to be competitive overall in comparison with poor performances in previous weeks but once again we were not able to force a win. Little margins here and there and perhaps a lack of belief until the finale the difference.