It was a glorious day in Musselburgh. Chay won the toss and elected to field first. We started very well and reduced the home side to 18/4 thanks to some terrific bowling from Sylvan (2 overs, 2 runs), Freddie (2 overs, 1 maiden, 6 runs, 2 wickets) and Otis (2 overs, 4 runs, 1 wicket). Chay and Otis took 3 catches between them but the pick of the catches was Kit fielding at mid on. We had a disappointing and inaccurate middle spell of bowling but Conrad then came in and took 3 wickets for 6 runs from his two and Zak got the last man out with the help from Thabo who calmly caught the ball at square leg. Fielding was good today: James and Harry worked hard in the wide areas and my fielder of the day was Kit with his great catch and accurate throwing to the stumps.
After a lovely match tea, we went out to bat with Chay and Otis opening. Chay hit 10 runs from 3 balls before being caught and Zak fell for 4 on his second ball by swinging at a straight delivery. Ewan came in and played some excellent shots, batting till the end. Wickets fell as he kept batting but Conrad then came in to see us home with the winning run. There were some suspicious calls which resulted in needless run outs today, as well as 2 golden ducks!! We need to learn to block the straight balls!
Ewan scored 23 not out but as a result of running out two of his team mates(!), has to share the player of the match award with Conrad for not only his 3 wicket haul but also his sensible batting and calling to get us over the line. He also kept wicket well to give our regular keeper, Ewan, a bowl!
The main lesson to take from today’s game is that when you are chasing a modest total (in this case 68), you don’t need to take risks when running between the wickets and you don’t need to slog at every ball: play the shots sensibly against the straight balls and take on the bad balls; rotate the strike and take the singles.
Well done to Loretto today; although they perhaps left a few runs out there during their innings, their bowling and fielding was outstanding and they made it an exciting game. Thank you to them for their hospitality. Well done to all the boys; once again, another very enjoyable sunny afternoon with the 2nd XI.
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