Catches really do win matches! Oh and another 60 point weekend for the mighty Cross

Sat 29^th the return leg vs Watsonian’s 2’s.

Saturday dawned another reasonable day for our 10^th league fixture of 2013, already one or possibly two more than we played all last season!

Facing a vastly different Watsionain’s 2’s team from the week before, I again lost the toss and we were asked to bat first, which is what I had planned on doing had I won the toss.

Charlie and Raja opened up and set about getting the innings off to a slow but steady start, until Raja fell for 8, caught yet again playing across the line and chipping one up to be comfortably caught. I then continued the fashion of repeating previous dismissals, chopping one on to my stumps yet again.  I played another nothing cut shot to a ball that didn’t need to be played at. Again not troubling the scorers, other than to add a couple of dots and write Bowled - Yellowlees for another duck – surely making me odds on favourite for the much envied award of ‘Most Disappointing’ season for 2013.

Owais and Charlie then batted through and picked up the run rate, not without a few agricultural heaves from Owais and some fine shots from both. Owais was the next man to fall for a typically quick (and no I’m not talking about his running between the wickets) 26. Good to see him back in the runs.

Next man in was Dougie, promoted to 5 with the lack of “batting” in the team on Saturday. He yet again played extremely well and kept the strike turning over and dispatching the bad balls to the boundary. He has surely cemented his place in the top order, had he not been off sunning himself in France next weekend!

By this stage Charlie had progressed to 43, again showing his class and ability to stick it out and punish any bad deliveries, as well and a number of good ones too. Then possibly the most unfortunate wicket of the season so far, Dougie absolutely clattered a full toss back towards the bowler low and to his right. He only had time to throw a hand out at the ball. He managed to ricochet the ball into the stumps, leaving a backing up Charlie high and dry, probably his own fault as everyone knows that at Holy Cross you just simply don’t back up or run quick singles for that matter!

Bonners, GT and Dougie all added runs in quick fashion 22, 29 and 33 respectively pushing our total up well past 150 for only about the second time this season.  With us 9 men down, Bimbo and Vik put on a 10^th wicket stand in the order of around 45 runs. Vik showing his ability to absolutely smash pretty much anything that was thrown down the wicket finishing on an impressive 31* off probably about 15 balls. The highlight was seeing bimbo push him to run numerous 2’s, which ended in Vik heaped on the ground panting like a Labrador. Vik started complaining that he couldn’t go on and his back was hurting. He then dispatched the next ball for a mashoove 6 over extra cover! Bimbo supported Vik extremely well, turning several singles into doubles and turning over the strike to end on 11*.

A very respectable 222 for 9 up on the board after 50 overs.

Now off for the much anticipated lunch, I think something got lost in translation last week, with stories of sumptuous meals in the Watsonian’s clubhouse. There waere plenty of sarnies, bhaji’s and a delicious chocolate cake and fruit platter, but not a curry or stew in sight.

Watsonians got off to a strong start with two men opening the innings that weren’t in the team last weekend. Both scored at a good pace, dispatching the bad ball and defending the good. With the score creeping up to 40 odd without loss, it took what is quite possibly a contender for the catch of the season, to remove Yellowlees off the bowling of Worsnop, who was playing in his final game before swanning off for his annual summer sojourn to Spain. With myself at mid-wicket Yellowlees clipped one off his legs and initially I didn’t think it would carry. After a couple of steps forward, I decided to throw myself to my right and chucked out a hand, managing to clutch the ball between my thumb and little fingers.

Robin again bowled extremely well and finished with figures of 10 overs 3 for 30 and will surely leave big boots to fill until his return from Spain for the last game of the season!

As I mentioned in the title, catches really do win matches with us taking 7 in total throughout the Watsonian’s innings.

Of note, Raja holding what I think is his first league catch of the season after a run of uncompleted catches. Shanton holding a very sharp chance diving low to his right at first slip, Spickers taking a diving one handed catch off Vikram and Owais clutching the final catch running a long way to his right on the boundary, I like most, thought he probably wasn’t going to make enough ground to get to the ball on the full, but did so comfortably and took a great running catch.

The Watsonian’s innings suffered from a Holy Cross like lack of application from a number of key top order batsmen, just when they built the start of a good partnership we seemed to take a wicket. We did however let them get a lot closer than they should have, after being 6 down for about 90odd. One of the new faces in their team, a young lad Cockburn, put together a very well compiled innings, before being tempted once too often by a very well flighted ball from the old master Dougie and being bowled for 47.

Dougie mopped up the tail taking 3 wickets for just 8 runs off only 18 balls. He took Watsonian’s last 3 wickets in his third over, including 2 row off the last 2 deliveries!

Watsonian’s all out for 175 after 41 overs, ending a very enjoyable match that again was played in very good spirits. 20 more points in the bank and 2 wins in a row.