Dunfermline Cricket Club

Captain's Corner

ALI, MARSHY AND VASU SET UP AN EMPHATIC VICTORY FOR THE KNIGHTS

It was very unusual to be playing a league game on a Sunday. Not that it was first time ever but it felt different. Greenock is having an unusual season by the standards of their recent past record. We were not prepared to read much in to their loss against the Forfarshire and in the contrary were extra careful. They had the further blow s when Barrington and Willie had to sit out due to the injuries.

Bright warm weather over the last week meant a dry, flat pitch and that’s what we got. We won the toss and decided to bat first. I opened with Wayne. It is very unusual to see Wayne late on the ball but perhaps the long Saturday night has got some thing to do with that or he is just not a “Sunday cricketer”. But after circling the bat around line of the ball and missing few times, he crunched one through the off-side for four. “Snap” looked like everything was back in order from there on until a questionable LBW decision cut short his inning on 9. This brought Ali in to the middle and he was in a dominating mood. He just picked the pace up almost every over it seemed, picking gap at will and punishing number of good balls. This had the opposition completely deflated and demoralised. Other than their skipper Kev, no one could exert any sort of pressure and fielding began to suffer too. Ali completed his 3^rd century of the season in 32 over. By this time ball had began to grip the surface a little bit and made it difficult to play the forcing shots. We lost three quick wickets including that of Vasu. Ali perished trying to score faster on 104 and suddenly it looked like we may be scoring far less than once it looked at around half way stage.

 In walked Marshy and started off with confidence he had gained from his previous ton, in last week’s 20/20 game. Marshy had showed the glimpses of returning to ‘form’ in previous two games but today he looked like the “vintage Marshy”. Like he did so many times in the last season, he raced along to 55 in no time and helped us to set up a total of 323. Marshy’s batting form is so vital for our team and it is pleasing to see him score those runs. He not only gets the boundaries but also controls the latter half of the innings very well. Jordy and Mushy individually put up good show in helping Marshy and setting good total. Return of Mushy was another positive point to the team. He batted sensibly and also looked in good touch. Mushy was the one who helped us achieve flexibility (entire last season) by selflessly being a floater batsman.

After the break we started with Vasu and Saz opening the bowling attack for us. Guess what!!! The “canny bowler Vasu” was back. He ran in with purpose and that “extra spice” which had deserted him thus far in this season was back. He was just too hot to handle. He has batted really well this year but it was his bowling which had been below par by his standards. He bowled with variations and put relentless pressure on the batsmen. In his first 4 overs he had one wicket every over. Eventually he collected bunch of 6 wickets for 27 runs in his 9 overs, with other three claimed by Marshy, Ali and Saz. Marshy also took a wonderful one handed catch to dismiss their skipper in the bowling of Saz. They were bundled out for 57 under19 overs. Team energy levels were good. Due to the work commitments Appu had to miss the game  along with Safiyan due to the side strain. But the replacements did a fantastic job.

Return to ‘form’ for Marshy with the bat and Vasu with ball is the most pleasing aspects of the day. Both quality all-rounders of our team were little cold in one of the aspects of their trade thus far. But today they just lifted their game to another level and it is very exiting with half of the season to go. We will be tested in our next game against the Watsonions who are in the top three of the table. But if we play like we did today then any thing is possible. I think it is time to be unemotional about the selection and focus on the balance of the team until we are still in with a chance. Until next time ……………LEOPARD.

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