1st XI League Campaign Underway - 20 Points in the Bank

The Skipper writes...

After the deluge of rain, hail and snow across Central Scotland on Friday afternoon, it was nice to awaken on Saturday to clear blue morning and to see some strange orange/yellow object high in the sky.

It would seem that the Cross 1^st XI have started the season playing at 2 of Edinburgh’s most remote and hard to find grounds, well that’s what newcomer Julius Newman will attest to. At five to 1, the Cross had 8 men on site and the opposition only had 10. Even the mercurial KF was nowhere in sight by 1pm! Luckily the skippers had come to a gentleman’s agreement that the game wouldn’t start until sometime between 5 and 10 past one.

The toss was won by the Musselburgh skip and he quickly responded with, ‘We’ll have a bowl’!

The new look power hitting Cross opening partnership of Owais and Raja strode out to a somewhat spongy wicket, which looked like it would take a bit of seam. Everyone was hopeful that they could continue their impressive start and build on their opening stand of 70odd last week. Unfortunately Raja set the trend for the day holing out to mid-on off Verma, after adding just 2 to his personal tally and the Cross were 8-1 at the end of the 3^rd over.

By this stage KF had had just enough time to don the pads, but just as quick as he put them on, it was time to take them off again. Out in similar fashion as Raja for the addition of only 2. It was clear that the wicket was very slow, with what could only be described as tennis ball bounce. The usually rapid Owais, had only scored 12 runs in the opening 6 overs.

After the fall of KF, in stepped Charlie who claimed he was “horribly underprepared and out of touch” for the start of the season. He took a few sighters and then dispatched an elegant late cut for 4 that wouldn’t have looked out of place on the WACA. His endless wiff waffing over winter had clearly kept his eye in pretty good nick. In fairness it did take him until his 18^th delivery to score again, when he exploited the gap between keeper and first slip to bring up another boundary. He repeated to exploit this gap for his next two scoring shots, both boundaries that would no doubt have been stopped if Musselburgh had employed my tactic when skipper of the Hoon Hay under 10B’s, of having a back-stop placed directly behind the keeper!

After an unusually quiet knock, Owais succumbed in similar fashion to Raja and KF, caught for 18. Next man in was McOscar Snr (Jimmy) making his Holy Cross league debut, with the Cross floundering at 34-3 at the end of the 12 over. Not long after entering the fray, Jimmy faced up to the imposing figure of the tall West Indian pace bowler Renee Collins, who was running late after being at an Engineering Conference in Cologne, that’s in Germany if you didn’t know!

Collins stormed in off his long run and unleashed an almighty sandshoe crusher that almost accounted for Jimmy’s debut innings. I bet you are all expecting to hear that Jimmy was given not out to a huge LBW appeal, but not so. When I say sandshoe crusher, I’m actually talking about Collins’ own foot. The ball was almost as comical as Bimbo’s wicket last weekend, which pitched well into his own half looped up and on second bounce barely made it to Jimmy. In dazed amusement Jimmy took a healthy swipe at the ball and produced a forehand wiff waff like slice that Charlie would have been rather envious of and was almost caught at backward point.

The two then set out to repair the innings, with a mix of gritty defending, good running and some lusty blows. In particular from Jimmy who put two 6’s out of the ground, one on the bounce and the other that I’m sure would have easily cleared the fence straight at Arbo Rd. After some excellent batting, Charlie was the first to raise his bat with a fine 50 and not long after came Jimmy’s 50. A few overs later the pair completed a brilliant 100 partnership, a fine knock from both in tough conditions. The two added about 20 more runs until the fall of the 4^th wicket in the 41^st over, when a rather tired looking Jimmy was caught off Musselburgh’s young Ausie paceman Ellery for 60 with the total at 144. A fine way to start his career with the Cross, looking forward to your first jug shout in the green room Jimmy!

2-3 overs later it was Charlie’s turn to head back to the hut, with a magnificent 68 to his name and the score at 153-5, not bad for someone horribly out of touch!

With 7 overs to go the skip had his eye on a total of around 180+, with plenty of batting to come. Unfortunately the return of opening bowler Verma accounted for McOscar Jnr (7) and Shannon (4). Then VC Gaz fell for just 2. New recruit Newman ended on 2* and a rather green and hung-over looking Bainbridge on 3*. All in all a competitive total of 174 that we felt was defendable.

A few words were exchanged on the way off the field and it seemed a stoush might take the magnificently laden tea table taken out of action before a Battenberg slice was even sniffed at. As skip I felt the need to step in and calm the situation down, if nothing else to protect the jam doughnuts from being knocked off the table. Peace was restored and the lads enjoyed a sumptuous spread that I have not seen the likes of before.

Musselburgh set out at a frenetic pace. With their opener Mahadevan dispatching Shan’s opening delivery to the boundary for 4. They had raced to 16 off just 2.3 overs, when a disastrous call for a second run (from the Musselburgh players on the side line) led to a horrible mix up in the middle. Raja with a great throw from deep in the outfield and Shan did the rest, leaving Musselburgh 19-1 at the end of the 3^rd over.

Their remaining opener Mahadevan and number 3 Ullah threw caution to the wind and were playing some agricultural shots, resulting in a number of early boundaries. Vik (who? me? you mean you want me to open the bowling?) had a fine first spell back at the crease. His first 5 overs only conceding 9 runs. In all honesty he was just too good to catch the edge of either batsmen. Shan had a bit of a mixed bag, which included the usual jaffas that no-one in this league can get close to and a few loose deliveries.

Raja and Gaz then took over and bowled some tight lines, with the VC ending his spell with none for 17 off 8 overs, the noose was tightening. Up stepped Julius, in his debut game and bowling his first over in about 6 years. He looks to be a pretty handy left arm medium and finished with the respectable figures of 1 for 14 off 5.

At drinks Musselburgh were 78 for 1, with the opener Mahadevan retiring hurt after trying to slog one straight… to cow corner and ending up on the ground in a load of pain. We all felt that we were in with a chance to take this one out, with some more tight bowling and good fielding.

After a drink and an offer of more food, it was Bimbo’s turn from the top end and he produced a reasonable spell for someone so horribly hungover, taking 1 for 22 off his 4. Then cometh the hour cometh the man, Charlie took the ball at the top end and produced a miserly spell of wonderful proportions. He accounted for the dangerous Mahadevan who had returned to the crease but only managed to add a few to his total before departing LBW for 37.

Vik was reintroduced and continued his fine return match, finishing with 2 for 15 off 9 overs. Charlie at the other end bowled 8 overs on the trot and picked up the first 5 wicket bag of the season, taking 5-18! Some good tight lines and some poor shot selection led to 5 catches being taken in the outfield and a much improved performance on last weekend’s pre-season warm up.

So a very well fought out battle that at several points in the match we probably shouldn't have won. Credit definitely goes to man of the match Charlie Ellis and Jimmy for their important individual contributions, but I truly believe that the whole team can take credit for sticking together and grinding out what can probably be classed as an ugly win!