1s grind out important win at Roseburn
Murrayfield DAFS 113/5
beat
Drummond Trinity 109ao
by 5 wicket
After a great start last week at Edinburgh Accies 2s largely thanks to a superb hundred from L. Mulholland (139) and fifties from Olly “Jean-Luc” Pickard and Sam “Hot Nips” Fergusson we were expecting a much tougher test at Roseburn Park (scene of an epic low scoring encounter for the 2s last week).
Skipper Tyagi had brought the start time forward on the advice of his own personal weather expert. This was to try and avoid the expected rain in the early evening. After an appeal for help with the outfield from our resident rolling expert Steve “The Sponsor” Mulholland many of us turned up early to work on clearing the big clumps of grass that the council had left. Special mention to Garuda “Sandstorm” Ramapriya who was first there and did a mammoth shift, even more impressive considering he has no knees.
Whilst this was ongoing Tyagi has been out to the middle and had won the toss (hopefully the first of many). None of us were surprised when he put DT into bat.
So with the ground looking pretty decent given the damp conditions and overhead cloud we headed out to the middle with Tom “Squashies” Ritch (I still prefer Rich Tea) opening the bowling with skipper Tyagi. The DT openers started pretty well and both bowlers struggled to create any initial chances. The Roseburn pitch was playing pretty true considering the conditions, clearly down to the time Steve put into the pitch before the game.
With the score in the twenties Tyagi got one to move back off the seam and knocked over the DT opener, the breakthrough we needed. Then next ball Viv pinned the incoming DT batter right in front, an easy LBW decision for the umpire and very nice to see it given. Suddenly they were 2 down. The hattrick ball came and went but we sensed more wickets on the horizon. Unfortunately despite a few aerial shots and a few close calls a partnership began to build. This bought Rubly into the attack who immediately settled into a good rhythm making it hard for DT to score. Eventually the patience of the number 4 ran out who got bowled going for a shot that just wasn’t there. At the other end Sandstorm came into the attack. His first ball barely pitched on the strip so there was some concern but within a few balls he had hit the right length and the ball was hooping. In fairness it was doing too much and it was a while before he got a double breakthrough, first trapping the DT opener for a well made 25 right in front and then having the number 5 caught by myself with a low catch. Suddenly DT were 50 odd for 5.
This quickly turned into 6 when Rubly had the number 7 with another lovely delivery which cleaned bowled him. At the other end the number 6 didn’t look like he was hanging around looking to free his hands at every opportunity. This saw Sandstorm get hit for a few boundaries, but we always thought we were in with a chance of getting him out. After taking the score into the 70s he went for one heave too many and you guessed it another bowled for Rubly who was continuing a lovely spell taking 4 wickets.
Up to that point the DT number 9 had been pretty defensive, happy to play second fiddle to the number 7 but his demise and them being 8 down saw him go on the offensive particularly to the returning Ritch who took some punishment for straying off his line, Tyagi had brought him back to clean up the tail. In Rubly’s final over he failed to get the breakthrough to give him what would have been a well deserved fifer. 4-21 off his 9 overs was however a very nice return teaching everyone the importance of bowling on the stumps with all 4 wickets bowled.
A frustrating 8th wicket partnership was creeping that score ever higher into what would be a competitive total at Roseburn so with the score around 90 Frank and Santhosh were brought into the attack to try and take those final 2 wickets. Frank was feeling the after effects of having rugby tackled a small dog in his attempt to stop a ball just about to roll over the line. The dog owner shouted at him in a foul mouthed tirade, all a bit unnecessary with the dog seemingly fine but others closer to the action described the dive as completely over the top and one for the cameras. I’m sure this won’t be the last time Frank takes centre stage throughout the rest of the season and a definite early MUFTA nomination.
It was Frank who got the breakthrough with a low full toss which was hit straight to Tyagi at mid wicket who took the catch despite his eyes being closed! By now the score had crept up over a hundred and the number 9 was still looking dangerous. After smashing Santhosh for a couple of boundaries it was Santhosh who finally got him out caught and bowled with a fine piece of fielding. As the ball went high into the air Tom at square leg and Lewis at Midwicket both just looked at each other. As the ball plummeted towards the ground Superman Santhosh flew in and took an excellent catch on the run (it definitely wasn’t his catch).
So DT were 109 all out which would be a tricky score to chase on a Roseburn pitch showing signs of low bounce and the forecasted rain in the afternoon.
Lewis fresh from his 139 last week confidently strode out to the middle with Sandstorm. It was Lewis who quickly went on the offensive looking to score at every opportunity and the score quickly raced along to the mid twenties with some lovely shots from Lewis which would have been boundaries if Roseburn had been a bit drier and the grass a bit shorter.
After navigating the first 6 overs without any issue it was the Sandstorm who nicked one behind to depart on 2 and bring Maggie to the crease. Lewis continued to score freely before he went back to one which misbehaved in true Roseburn fashion and shot along the floor to clean bowling. very unfortunate for Lewis but we all know that feeling of being “Roseburned” none more so than 147 trophy winner Finlay “Throw the ball at Hawkins’ ankles” Ross.
This brought myself to the crease and in the next few overs Maggie faced the majority of the bowling and was dropped on numerous occasions, some tough chances others you would have expected them to take and he took full advantage of these drops moving into the twenties which included 2 threes, the second of which I think Maggy thought I was trying to kill him but he just made it home. To be honest I don’t really have much to say about my innings other than it was a good partnership, the batting not so much and after struggling with the opposition’s Nadeem Anjum slow in-swinger style bowler I eventually succombed to the other bowler who had me caught at short cover. This left us on 69-3.
Out strode Bradley “Up and Down” Peters to the crease in what was quite a delicately poised situation, plenty of overs left but with rain on the horizon a few wickets would put us behind on the calculator. Luck was on Brad’s side though as in the early stages of the innings he was dropped twice, the sort of catches that the opposition would need to take if they were to win the game. With the score now on 74 Maggy was out LBW for the 790th time in his MUFS career. Fin was the next man in fresh from his 0 last week for the 2s against Haddington so he was looking to make amends. After a jittery start he eventually got one past the outfield down to deep midwicket to relieve his nerves. Then it started to rain pretty hard and the decision was taken to come off. We were 79-4 and well ahead on the rain calculator but the radar was showing a gap in the weather so it was looking like Brad and Fin would need to head back out.
After a short break we were back out and looking to finish off the match before anymore rain so we didn’t have to rely on the dreaded rain calculator. Then disaster struck as Fin was given out LBW by Sandstorm. Fin vigorously waved his bat to indicate there was a big inside edge but the decision was made and off he trudged. Garuda, Fin and LBW was becoming quite a familiar dismissal this season with it happening twice from three games (Garuda wasn’t even playing in the other game). Carl “Contactless” Barton had the same complaint with me last season but to be fair he was plumb every time ;-).
So at 80-5 DT had their tales up and could smell blood but up stepped Rubly to calm the nerves who along with Brad batted superbly in increasing gloomy conditions to see off the good ball and punish the bad ball. With the score in the late 90s Rubly did offer a chance to Mid On which was shelled. That proved costly as in the next couple of overs Brad smash a couple of lovely boundaries before Rubly, with the scores level, hitting a lovely whipped 4 over the top of mid wicket to win us the game.
This was a really good batting performance on a tricky Roseburn surface. We have definitely been on the wrong end of similar results in previous seasons so good to get over the line on this one.
So 2 from 2 for captain Tyagi with SMRH 2s next up which should prove an interesting contest.
UTM!