Cross Cruise to Victory

ESCA Div 1-at Roseburn.

Holy Cross 1st XI 186-7 (McOscar 65, Fraser 38, Smith 37) J. Zarkoob 3-33

MDafs 1st XI 98ao (Akerkar 35) Bonfield 4-13, Russell 3-28.

full scorecard here

Dougie's rotation policy meant that Owais and GT were rested: Bimbo and Quinn coming in.
Thursday and Friday's rain left a soft Roseburn pitch but the weather was generally fine on the day-though few showers dampened things.

 HX's 186-7 was built upon a very solid platform: a patient 38 from KF and another classy, high tempo knock from Simon (65 off 73). 186 was a very good score given the slow pitch and outfield and the lengthy boundaries (no sixes and only 7 fours in the match despite some good hitting).

MDafs made it easy for Simon by bowling to him on a a different-far better pitch- than the others had to bat on... We reached a very healthy 100-1 at drinks but a good spell from Akerkar (conceding 7 from his 1st 8 overs) and McOscar's slightly tame dismissal (stumped off wheeler) slowed things down.
EC (37 off 40) -in his final innings before leaving for Manchester- added impetus to the innings and though we lost a few cheap wickets (hard luck Beezer! Hope the jet lag has worn off Andy!), he, Shannon (11*) and Bimbo (4* off 2 balls) [I better mention his contribution as he'll only complain..].

Parsimonious spells from Raja and Bimbo  (both 1-5 off 5) kept the MDafs top order under constant pressure as they limped to 24-3 off 16 overs.
Some positive batting from Jaffery and Sorrell gave the innings some momentum before the Akerkar (assisted by cje's long-hops) threatened to get MDafs into the game (72-4 off 29). Shannon dismissed Sorrell with a lovely slower ball before he got Akerkar for a classy 35 (nicely snaffled by KF)  before Dougie took 3 wickets (Simon taking a nice catch at Long on and Shannon one at slip-via KF's gloves..) to bring the contest to a conclusion. Shannon took the final wicket to finish with 4-13.
New boy Jack Beesley impressed with his superb fielding...if only we had 11 fielders like him and Tom... Cheers too to Sandy for stepping in at the last moment, scoring etc.

Another solid performance with bat and ball from HX Ists.