Watsonians came out eventual winners by 4 wickets on a miserable damp day at Titwood.

Having lost the toss, Watsonians were invited to field first and with a green plasticine textured pitch prepared it looked like losing the toss was no bad thing. Despite the helpful conditions, the Sonians openers struggled to control the swinging ball and Clydesdale got off to a flier with Greig Williamson being particularly harsh on any error from the bowlers. With “the Dale” rattling along at more than 6 an over the pressure was on the visitors and questions were being asked. Raj Routray duly answered having Qasim Sheikh caught behind. Stuart Chalmers was next to join the party removing danger-man Williamson with a peach of a delivery.

Williamson’s dismissal brought Omar Hussain together with professional Kamran Sajid and the pair continued where the openers left off, that was until they were tied down by the Sonians’ spinners. Unable to dominate Paxton’s left arm spin, Hussain attempted to manufacture a shot against Vijay and was clean bowled for 31. Vijay went on to continue his fine form removing Majid Haq and Zulfi Shahid to finish with 3-46 while Paxton dried up all scoring from the far end. Going into the last 10 Clydesdale were around the 180 mark and in a good position to launch, but for the 6 wickets they had lost and the returning seamers were able to control the pace of the game restricting Clydesdale to only one boundary in the closing stages. The innings concluded at 228, a total which had the potential to prove difficult against Haq and Zeeshan Bashir on a surface which had started to turn.
 
The Watsonian opening pair of James Easton and the returning Ryan Flannigan laid a superb foundation for the rest of the chase putting on 70 for the first wicket with Easton making a rapid 39. Weston joined Flannigan at the crease and masterfully rotated the strike against the spinners making 29 before he was undone by a good piece of bowling from Bashir. Ewan Chalmers then became Flannigan’s next partner and together they took the game away from Clydesdale, a fact that was clearly visible in the fielders’ body language. With only 16 required to win, Clydesdale through the ball to 15 year old Lyle Hill and to the surprise of many in the ground he dismissed Chalmers with his first ball. When Flannigan followed for a masterful 81 and Euan Stubbs joined him in the pavillion soon after a few nerves jangled in the away dressing room but thanks to a composed 13 not out from Stuart Chalmers Watsonians got over the line with an over to spare.
 
A four wicket win should perhaps have been a seven or eight wicket triumph but vitally it kept up the pressure on leaders Grange.

Scorecard

This entry was posted on Monday, July 26th, 2010 at 9:44 pm and is filed under First XI. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.