The Cross progress to Acitve Edinburgh semi-final

Holy X v Livingston - 4th Aug

On yet another bleak evening in Livingston, our T20 match was shifted to the artificial as the pitch was sodden, as was the outfield. It was critical to get the game completed last night, as finals day is this Sunday, so both teams endured fielding in the rain.

Winning the toss, it was an easy decision to bat first on the artificial and on a gloomy evening that would surely see the team batting second finishing in the near dark.

Looking to get us off to a fast start, I absolutely middled a lofted straight drive off the second ball of our innings. When it came off the bat, it felt pretty good and I was sure it was going to sail well over the boundary for a 6. However, it seems the ball doesn't travel as far in Livingston as it does at other grounds or was it the moisture in the air?

Raja and I survived several early let offs, both of us being dropped a number of times in the first 4-5 overs, in fairness several were extremely difficult chances, but a couple were absolute dollies. We set off at a pretty rapid pace, the artificial offering noting in the way of assistance for the bowler and the wet outfield turning the ball in to a bar of soap.

Contrary to Cross etiquette, we were running well, with a lot of 1's and 2's, as well as slashing the odd boundary. We kept the run rate at about 6 an over. The 8th or 9th over saw a rapid rise in the run rate, with Raja and I taking 20 run off it, with myself brining up 50 with consecutive 6's off the first 2 balls of the over.

Raja and I put on 122 for the opening stanza, which ended with me chipping the ball straight back to the bowler - disappointingly out for 70 off 41 balls at the start of the 15th over. Kashif following a couple of balls later for 1. The cross now 124-2 at the end of the 15th.

Raja fell in the next over for a well played 44 and was followed immediately by Jules, clean bowled for a Golden Quacker! 129-4 after 16.

KF and Dougie kept things going and progressed our score with some good running between the wickets. Could Holy Cross finally be beginning to understand that you can do more than jog between the wickets?

We finished our 20 overs on 151-5, setting Livingston a touch over 7.5 an over for victory.

With the light fading and more rain about, Kashif and Bacon were handed the ball to open the bowling. I managed to drop an easy catch off Kashif's 3rd ball, I'll blame the wet conditions.

Both bowled very well and we quickly picked up 3 wickets in the first 3 overs. Kashif finishing with 2 for just 9 runs off his 4 overs!

The Livingston Skipper came in at 5 and batted extremely well, hitting plenty of 1's and 2's, which led to the Livingston #4 retiring ahhh tired!?!? when they were 3 for about 90 odd and looking like they might push our total close.

Their Skipper kept score ticking over pretty well going at 5-6 an over, however Dougie and I chipped out a couple of wickets at the other end. Coastal Ken was like a panther fielding at a short mid-wicket, throwing the stumps down with 3 throw's that narrowly missed out affecting several run outs.

Dougie and I had fairly similar bowling figures, finishing with a couple of wickets between us and conceding about 30 runs each off our combined 8 overs.

It's true, catches do win matches and that was something we did very well. Other than my drop in the first over, I can't recall any other catches going down - I think we took 3, possibly 4 catches on the boundary, including the vital wicket of their Skipper, who was well held in the deep by Kashif - out for an impressive 54!

Having just lost their Skipper, they needed about 38 off the last 4 overs and ended coming up short, finishing on 137-6 off 20.

Raja and Jules both bowling tidy 2 over spells to close out the match, with Raja finishing with 2 wickets for 9 runs off 2 overs.

So a pleasing result which sees us progress to the semi-final vs MDAFS at Myerside on Sunday 9th August starting at 12:30pm.

The final will follow at 4pm @ Myerside, with the winner of our game playing either SMRH or Edinburgh CC.

So get on down to support the Cross!!!!