Weekend Sport – Sat 14th July. Cricket 1st XI at Forfarshire

Stewart’s Melville CC     90 all out (34.3 overs);    Forfarshire    91 for 2  (13.3 overs)

At hot and sunny Broughty Ferry, Captain Greg Ruthven won the toss and chose to bat first but thereafter things did not go quite as planned.   Openers Hayden Sweet and Greg Bissett batted with care and attention putting on 28 runs in 40 minutes when Hayden fell lbw to a ball which flicked off the back of his leg.   Misfortune enough but Mike Miller followed next ball, also lbw to opening bowler Scott Cameron who bowled aggressively throughout his 10 over spell taking 3 wickets and conceding only 10 runs.  The wickets of Greg and Shaylen Pillay, both caught,  followed quickly reducing  us to 32 for four.   The rest of the innings was the inevitable struggle and the total of 90 was far from a score that would stretch the home side’s powerful batting line up.   Shaylen Pillay and Tom Hilton opened our bowling and were successful in removing both Forfarshire openers for 6 runs.   This brought together two of Scotland’s World Cup batsmen Craig Wallace and Michael Leask who went along untroubled at a run a ball securing the win in only the 14th over.   In summary this was a disappointing performance although expectations for a win had not been high against one of the leagues best sides.     The twitter followers among the team and supporters then suffered further as the league’s bottom side Glenrothes seemed to be heading for an unlikely win against Arbroath before capitulating to a six run defeat losing their last five wickets for 13 runs.

Saturday sees the 1st XI back at home for a 12 noon start against Aberdeenshire who we defeated in the corresponding match last season.   Let’s hope for a repeat.