Dunnikier v Drummond Trinity CC 1st XI on Sat 31 May 2008 at 13.00
Drummond Trinity CC Won by 17 runs
It was off to Fife last Saturday for the DTs, and having lost the toss the DTs were asked to bat on what was described by the opposition captain as a soft track. So, bat they did.
After the shock and awe of the previous week’s innings on Ferry Road, the DTs seemed slow to regain familiarity with the more traditional trench warfare of Division 3 cricket. Steve and Jam were removed early on having provided little nuisance to the scorers. Imran, however, adapted well to the different conditions at Dunnikier Park, batting stylishly as always and contributing just shy of half of the DTs total. The little support that he did receive came from Ewen Brand who made an agressive 20 out of a 35 run third wicket partnership, and Steve Pollitt, who contributed a more cautious all ran 25 out of a 60 run partnership for the fifth wicket, leaving the DTs on 145 for 5 in the thirty-eighth over. At this point the DTs hoped to post around two hundred, but instead collapsed to 167 all out off 44.3 overs. With three batsmen getting ducks and three more out for eight, the DTs scorecard looked rather like the sort of phone number that I’m supposed to text “fish” to in order to find mackerel in my local area. Craig Drysdale (3 for 16) was the pick of the opposition bowlers, and the now retired Alan Cutter the pick of their fielders, catching Mani, Ewen and Immy behind the stumps.
The DTs had a lot of work to do to defend a total probably twenty to thirty short of a good one. An early breakthrough was sought, but Jim Braid and Alan Cutter were predictably prophylactic and the DTs had to wait until the nineteenth over before Grant got the breakthrough, bowling Alan Cutter with the score on 42. Teach and Shezhad bowled brilliantly in partnership to restrict Dunnikier from this point, and eventually the pressure told. Jim Braid advanced down the track to batter a full toss off Teach only to get a thick edge; Kev somehow managed to take a brilliant one-handed catch, diving to his left. The Mister Tickle award for the catch of the season currently sits on Mister McLellan’s mantelpiece. Teach and Kev again combined to remove Kilminster two overs later, with the score still on 55, before Steve Coulsen provided the DT’s fourth wicket of the day with an excellent direct hit run out from mid-on. Dunnikier were 55 for 4 in the thirtieth over of the game and the DTs were right back in it. The DTs continued to bowl well but Dunnikier fought back with Brian Cutter and Drysdale batting with controlled aggression to poise the game nicely at 107 for 4 off 40 overs; 61 needed off the last ten overs, and two unlikely death bowlers to bowl them in Steves Coulsen and Pollitt. Lobby got the initial breakthrough, with Drysdale (29) holing out to an excellent catch by Jamal at Deep Square Leg. As Teach and She had done earlier, the two bowlers kept turning the screw in face of the aggressive intent of the Dunnikier batsmen. Coulsen was finally rewarded in the the forty-seventh over of the day, picking up the wickets of Skene (hit wicket) and McMillan (bowled) for only one run. He struck again in his final over, but the Dunnikier attack had already petered out by then, and they finished on 150-8, with Brian Cutter not out on 43. This was an excellent effort by the DTs in the field, and the seventeen run margin of victory doesn’t really do justice to how very tight and pressured this game was throughout much of the second innings, where just a single boundary or a wicket would have swung the game yet again.
Thanks must go to Dunnikier for their part in a thrilling game of cricket played in excellent spirit. They were splendid hosts and we look forward to receiving them in the return fixture.
Drummond Trinity CC 1st XI Batting
167 for 10
Dunnikier Bowling
Dunnikier Batting
150 for 8
Drummond Trinity CC 1st XI Bowling