ESCA Week 6 match reports
A great weekend for two-thirds of the club, as the Firsts and Thirds both record wins.
The Firsts made great use of the winning the toss and batting, posting a formidable 262, all out in the final over. Star of the show was Lawrence Dingre, whose 86 from 64 balls might be the best knock of the season so far.
‘Muir got stuck in to the top of the Marchmont order pretty quickly, with two of the top three going for ducks and, while the middle order staged something of a comeback, ’Muir ran out comfortable winners. Pick of the bowlers was Nithishraj Saravanan, newly signed from Stirling County and taking 3/25 on debut. Welcome to the club.
The Thirds continued their excellent start to the season, against Morton 4 at Gyle Park. Put in to the field the Thirds made early breakthroughs, with Jonathan Colling picking up both openers in the first over. Both were caught behind by Lachlan Keay, the chirpy Australian/Luxembourgian/Scot having stepped off a plane from Vietnam that very morning. A 100+ partnership got Morton to 109/2 before something of a collapse saw them finish on 172, all out.
Adam Cornick was an early casualty in the response, but the veteran George Dickson combined in a classy partnership with Lachlan, who went on to make an excellent half century in the successful chase.
If things were going well at Gyle, they were going pretty badly at Meadowmill, where the Seconds’ poor start to the season continued in a humbling loss to Tranent and Preston Village 4. Opting to field, the Seconds saw the hosts get off to lively start, with Ashish Shaju hitting 48 off 27 balls before being bowled by Ashok Rajappan (Ashok having picked up the other opener in the first over). The Seconds then conspired to let the hosts build a formidable total of 256, centred on a 150 partnership, and helped along nicely by a succession of dropped catches.
In response the Seconds found themselves 7/3 and while there were decent knocks from Zafar Iqbal, Rajesh Domadia, Ashok Rajappan and Muhammad Sadiq that rebuilt the innings, the 2s were never going to threaten Tranent’s total.