Wildcats Third Time Lucky Against Grange
The Wildcats deservedly defeated Grange on a sunny Monday evening at Myreside by a nerve jangling 7 runs.
Batting first, having been inserted, the Wildcats scored a reasonable 102 for 7 but were chased all the way to end by a Grange team who fell short on 95 for 9.
Having lost to Grange in the League and the Cup, this was the opportunity for the team to make amends and a very good, all round team performance, secured the win.
Rory Evans and Andrew Cockburn opened up with Andrew hitting a huge six off the Grange opening bowler before being unfortunately bowled by a “shooter”. With Calum Young falling LBW and Adam Hastings looking to punish the bad balls, Rory took up the supporting roll and held the innings together for a watchful 21 before being caught going for a big hit.
Kerr Stoddart supported well with a couple of boundaries towards the end of the innings which was closed at 102 for 7.
The total, whilst not hugely challenging, still had to be beaten and it was going to take a good bowling and fielding performance to prevent the strong Grange batting from passing our total.
An early wicket by Adam Hastings was well supported by his opening partner, Matty Henderson who bowled his four overs very accurately. Calum Young took over and really cut the scoring rate, bowling his four overs for 7 runs at a critical time. Unfortunately, at the other end, Jamie Cousin lost his rhythm before bravely returning later to bowl two very good overs at a critical stage, taking the wicket of the strongest Grange batsmen with a fantastic running catch by Rory Evans, right on the boundary.
As the pressure built, it was Rory who was given the task of bowling at the death and took us to the brink of victory with a great spell of 3 overs, 1 wicket for 8 runs. A great little spell by Rory who bowled a consistent line and length, thus preventing the batsmen from scoring heavily.
With one over to go and Grange needing 11 to win and most of the main bowlers bowled out, up stepped Andrew Cockburn to bowl the most important over of the match. The first two balls went for singles and the third was a wide. The pressure was on but “Wee C” proceeded to take 3 wickets in the final 4 balls assisted by three safe catches in the outfield to secure the victory.
This was a great team performance with all eleven contributing to a match that see-sawed backward and forward right to the end. It was good to see the boys starting to work out how to win tight games which will help them all greatly in the future.
Coaching point for the day and it is one of my regular gripes – too many extras, particularly wides. Both teams were guilty of gifting the opposition too many runs. Both teams conceded 25-30 extras, imagine how easily we would have won if it had only been 10 extras?????
Two games next week for the Wildcats, where we look forward to success against West Lothian on Monday and Heriots on Wednesday.
