1's let 20 points slip through their fingers

Holy X 1's v Marchmont Saturday 1st August

After back to back losses to league leaders Glenrothes and Grange 2's, the 1's were hoping to get back on the right side of the ledger in a middle of the table clash vs the old frenemy Marchmont.

I'd like to say a big thanks to BAF, Vik and Nipun who all stepped up to help us out on Saturday, with the clubs dismal availability and late call offs yet again causing major headaches for Dom, Andy G and myself from Thursday onwards.

I won the toss and put them in to bat on what looked like a green seamer, which proved not to be the case. The pitch played pretty well, with good bounce, if not a bit slow.

Myself and Charlie opened the bowling, Charlie somehow managing to get the wind behind his back! we started off reasonably well, bowling some tight lines. We had a huge shout for caught behind denied in my 3rd over, which caused some frustration and led to a couple of costly overs!

Charlie was beating the bat regularly, but just couldn't seem to find the edge. After 5 overs, I introduced Kashif who bowled extremely well from ball one.

In my 6th over, I managed to snare the opening wicket, a well held catch to Vik at mid-on. In my next over, off a terrible ball donw leg side, the other opener managed a slight edge, and Euan took a quite brilliant catch down the leg.

The next partnership put on 38 (mostly coming off my bowling!) until Kashif made a double breakthrough off consecutive deliveries. He finished with the impressive figures of 10 overs 4 maidens, 2 wickets for only 9 runs!

Mat Loeffen batted very well for Marchmont, scoring a well paced 52 before Charlie had him caught well by Raja at mid-on.

Marchmont has progressed from 87-4 to 131-5. Some big hitting from their skipper Pete, saw them reach 183-7 off 50, just as the rain arrived. It was a top effort in the field, with a number of our regular bowlers not in action this weekend.

Again the 3 men who came up from the 2's made a huge difference in the field with BAF, Vik (2 very good catches) and Nipun putting in brilliant shifts in the field. I can't thank them enough and really appreciate them working so hard to support the bowlers.

An extended tea was then taken, which was excellent I might add, saw the game resume just after 4pm. no reduction in overs, as we'd rapidly gotten through our 50 overs!

With Dougie on holiday, Adnan stepped in to open the batting and looked like he had settled in and finding some of his lost touch. He was adjudged LBW in the 4th over with the score on just 15.

After some early lusty blows, I tried one too many and the ball took a leading edge, which was well held by Dalton running backwards at point - out for 15, The cross now 26-2 and in some early strife.

Kashif and Zia then looked good, putting on 36 until Kashif holed out for a solid 23. Charlie was next man in and took a long time to get going, at one point was pushing C Graham's costal of the weekend effort, with only 1 run from his first 19 balls.

However he soon found his stride and the pair added 71, until Zia was well held, out for 50. The Cross looking reasonably comfortable at 133-4 with plenty of overs left to knock off the remaining 51 runs.

Calamity struck a few overs later, with Charlie chipping one straight to mid-off, out for a fine 32 and the Cross now 157-5.

2 overs later Raja smashed Maksimczyk straight back over his head for a towering 6, reducing the target to 20 run off 44 balls with 5 wickets in hand. Surely the Cross were now well on target to take out 20 points.

Sadly not, 2 balls later Raja tried to repeat the does he'd just dealt out and was clean bowled, gone for 23! In his next over Maksimczyk took identical wickets, trapping Spickers and BAF both LBW off consecutive balls.

Holy Cross now struggling, needing 14 off 22 balls with 1 wicket remaining.

Vik and Nipun tried valiantly, adding 8 runs for the final wicket stand, but leaving us 6 runs short of victory.

It was a case that we lost a few too many early wickets and one of the top 6 (other than Zia or Charlie) needed to knuckle down and see the inning through. Looking back, I don't think any of the top 6 can really say they got out to a Jaffa.

We left far too much for the lower order to deal with, against a good bowling unit that was well managed by Maksimczyk, bringing on his bowlers at the right time and building good pressure, leading to some silly shots in the top order.

So another very tight loss, the 4-5 by my count this season and 8 more losing bonus points. So we still have some work to do in the last 3 weeks to solidify out place in the middle of the Championship table.