Bonfield Inspires 1sts' Victory

Scorecard HERE

A top-class allround performance by Shannon helped us win a good match versus Musselburgh. In truth, the victory should have been much more comfortable...our fielding again worse than mediocre; and costing Shannon a 5-for (Shannon himself showing how it should be done with 3 slip catches-two of them real crackers). One of the recipients of an extra life (MCC skipper R. Tufail) batted well and received good support from Dilly and took Musselburgh to 149-4 off 33 and with a chance..

A couple of lucky wickets helped us at key moments: full bungers from Raja and Bainbridge leading to wickets. In general our bowling was competent  but too many 4-balls released the pressure. cje again bemused the MCC batsmen with his slow swinging tempters and picked up only his 3rd 5-for in senior cricket but 2nd versus Musselburgh in 2013..! (though he wouldn't have had he not butchered a run out in farcical fashion...was it deliberate??)

Given the weather, wicket & outfield a big score was always on-but at 125-5 it looked like we might blow it (Raja, Spick & KF had all scored useful runs but we needed a big score from someone..).  A fine 92 run partnership between Shannon & Julius (who received a well-deserved promotion after his 91 for the 2's) took us beyond 200 and with Bimbo & Alex C (no really!-a 4 through extra cover!!) chipping in with useful runs (but not Vik who disappointed his fans with just 3 off 12 balls). But Vik didn't disappoint with the ball: conceding just 12 off his seven overs to ensure that MCC were behind the required rate from the start.

So, as with the performance at Myreside, the 1sts did enough with the bat to dominate the match but a sloppy period in the field allowed their opponents back into the game. We need to play better for LONGER..

newspaper report HERE