ESCA Week 18 match reports
The final week of the league season. A time of mixed emotions for players, the Seconds and Thirds playing for pride, and the First XI still with a chance of promotion. Sod your Odyssey, here’s the story of week 18.
Let’s start at The Meadows, where the Third XI were taking on Royal High Corstorphine 4 on an absolute stinker of a strip. Captain Subham Biswas won the toss and elected to bowl, hoping to take advantage of a strong bowling line-up. He was rewarded when Matthew Batchelor removed both openers, the first bringing veteran keeper Paul Hutton his 60th catch for the club (that’s very nearly one for each year of his age). With the two openers gone, RHC were 30 for 2, a score that old hands know isn’t bad for The Meadows. From there though it was a steady parade of wickets, as some tight bowling, and some absolutely stunning catching, did for the RHC batters. Matthew Batchelor and Shahmir Khan took good catches in the deep, Harimohan Seeba took an excellent one-handed grab above his head at cover, and Tom Millar pouched a skyer after one of the loudest “It’s mine” shouts delivered by a ’Muir player. But the pick of the bunch was Joe Pilny clutching on to one that had been driven straight into his chest at silly mid on. Extras top scored with 18, although Hutton would like to note that there was but a single Bye.
We’ve all seen totals of 64 defended at The Meadows and although Tom MiIlar and Matthew Jack got the 3s off to a steady start, there was soon a regular stream of batters returning to the benches. At 39 for 7 things looked decidedly dicey, but Hassan Rizwan and Gurvinder Singh batted sensibly to bring the 20 points back to Meggetland. One down…
Over at Meggetland the Second XI were taking on Holy Cross 2. Electing to bowl, the 2s struck early—Ashok Rajappan reducing the visitors to 1 for 1. From there though they built steadily, and at 72 for 1 must have expected to post a decent total. Losing 9 wickets for 17 runs put paid to that, veteran bowlers Colin Siller and Ed Hutchinson doing the bulk of the damage (Hutch eventually ending with 3 for 8 off 5 overs) after keeper Zafar Iqbal had removed the number 2 with an extremely sharp stumping. In response George Dickson (in what he tells us is his last league outing for the club) and Irfan Mohammad scored the bulk of the runs, rebuilding after Hutch and Zafar Iqbal had been dismissed cheaply. While Holy Cross chipped away, the Seconds eventually won by 3 wickets. Two down…
And so to Arboretum, where the First XI were taking on Holy Cross 1, knowing that they needed a win for there to be any chance of promotion. Thanks to the intrigues of the Points Percentage system, they also needed Hawick and Wilton not to win against Murrayfield DAFS. I hope you’re paying attention at the back…
Winning the toss and electing to bowl the Firsts took a little time to strike, with Jamie Good picking up the home skipper off a superb catch by Mohammed Shamsu. The top of the Holy Cross order made steady runs, but without anyone posting a big score—’Muir’s bowlers were regularly chipping away at them while bowling economically. There was a flurry of wickets to reduce them from 112 for 3 to 113 for 6. In the end, the boys would be chasing 137.
Reduced to 18 for 3 early on, after the surprising losses of Ben Risi and Nithishraj Saravanan, they must have been wondering if this was going to be a missed chance. But a captain’s knock of 36 from Sharez Khan, ably supported by an unbeaten 33 from Ajey Chaudhary saw them over the line with a 4 wicket won. Three down, and as we should all note, the first 60 point weekend of the season.
With Hawick’s game not being live scored, all three elevens retired to Meggetland to celebrate the end of the season. PlayHQ pages were refreshed. People wondered whether they would have to await the arrival of the stagecoach from the Borders carrying news of the Hawick score. Would a pigeon flutter onto the Canalside balcony, carrying a scrawled message? A few hesitant phone calls were made to Murrayfield DAFS players and officials. Those brought the news that having been chasing 149, DAFS had been reduced to 135 for 9, before a last wicket stand of 14 gave them the win. Hawick were beaten, Boroughmuir were second, and pending the usual league shuffling around, should be promoted to Division 2. A fitting, if rather tense, end to a superb campaign by the Firsts under the captaincy of Sharez Khan.