With the U18 game being called off the day before due to a wet ground, nobody expected the Midweek game to go ahead. Luckily, it was sunny all day and highs of 18*c helped dry out the ground in time for the match to take place on the astroturf wicket. The captains strolled out to toss on a glorious evening at New Anniesland. B Stavert, the Vale of Leven skipper called 'Tails' and lost the toss. N Ganapathi chose to bowl first, a decision that was met with disgust in the dressing room.
Since there was a short boundary on one side of the wicket, P Singh pulled rank over C Russell and took the favourable end. On the fourth ball of the game, a short and wide ball from Ronnie was slashed at hard. The extra bounce generated from the surface meant the ball took the edge and flew to Kerr Moir (Aberdeen University’s gun slipper) who was at First Slip. Instead of using his hands, he decided to use his head to try and catch the ball. The end result? A dropped catch and a huge purple lump bang in the middle of his forehead. Just what he wanted before a night out with ex-Accies boy Zuhair Siddique in Viper.
During a tight opening couple of overs, very little was given away. Cammy Russell went for 2 runs in his first couple of overs which included a maiden. Singh kept it tight and was rewarded by one of the Vale of Leven openers top edging an ugly cross bat shot to send the ball miles in the air towards Cover Point. The best fielder in the club, Nirvik Ganapathi, who had taken plenty of these skyers all season shouted "NIRVY G'S" to scare off the advancing R Dwyer from Point. After completing the catch and tossing the ball back to the Umpire, Singh was taken out of the attack to make way for the 1st XI opening bowler, M Ameer.
Instead of bowling his usual right arm thunderbolts, he proceeded to bowl 2 overs of off spin which didn't threaten the batsmen in the slightest. At the other end, Cammy was replaced by Robert Dwyer, the young Lincolnshire debutant. Resembling Bambi on ice, Robbie fell over in his follow through after his first ball. Despite reducing his 30 yard run up to 4 yards, he still struggled with his footing. After bowling a further two dot balls, he was rewarded with his first Accies wicket. A full ball which was hit tamely to a delighted Ameer at Mid-on. M Shafiq was in next and used Robbie’s pace to flick the ball just past the top heavy keeper’s left for the first boundary of the innings. In his second over, Robbie decided to bowl full and straight. He was rewarded with 2 wickets off the first 2 balls as the batsmen were beaten for pace. His hatrick ball was a good length ball outside off which was left alone by T Gilani, who went on to top score with a well-made 30.
After a back injury ended captain Ganapathi’s dream of bowling right arm heat for Royal Challengers Bangalore in the IPL, the talented youngster swapped hands and started bowling like Monty Panesar in the nets. With the Accies boys not wanting to chase 50, he was brought into the attack to try and increase the run rate. That didn’t work as he varied his pace and flight to frustrate the batsmen. He even found turn to spin past the bat and stumps on numerous occasions. The short Chinaman variation on leg stump was guided just past a concussed Kerr at leg slip who dived the wrong way. Ganapathi eventually managed to get his first Accies wicket bowling left arm orthodox as Adam Thomson picked out R Dwyer on the midwicket fence.
Habib Rao, who was bowling from the other end, continued his fine T20 form with the ball. He kept things economical and bowled 3 excellent overs for 9 runs. Since Kerr gave Nirvik a bit of chicken which was cooked by his really hot sister Robyn, he was given a 2 over spell which was uneventful. Dave Holloway, the 1st XI wicket keeper who was once in the Essex academy as a ‘fast’ bowler was rewarded with a spell after fielding really well at Mid-off and Long off.
Cammy Russell, who excels in bowling at the death, was brought back on to bowl in the 18th over. After only giving away 1 run in his first four balls, he bowled the Vale of Leven captain and then got young Mathieson out LBW in two consecutive balls. For the second time in the innings, a hatrick was on but he would have to wait an over to see if he could achieve what Robbie couldn’t earlier in the game. With the sun directly behind the bowler’s arm, Gilani called for a cap which didn’t help much so he asked for a pair of sunglasses as well. Cammy steamed in and bowled a full ball which the batsman didn’t see. The ball missed off stump by a whisker. Having survived that, Gilani decided to do a Neil Dowers and bat for his average. He put away his cross bat shots and played forward defences before the ball had even been bowled. Vale of Leven ended up on 80 for the loss of 7 wickets in 20 overs. An excellent bowling performance by the 8 bowlers used.
N Majhu and S Afridi, who begged not to bowl so they could open the batting took to the crease. Afridi, like his hero Boom Boom Afridi, knows only one way to play and that is attack from ball one. After playing and missing several good balls from Syed Shah outside off stump, he eventually got one on leg stump which he failed to put away. He did however scamper through for a single to get off the mark. Majhu, who recently got back from a month travelling around Europe played a lovely back foot punch first ball to open his account.
Chris Dalby was the other opening bowler and bowled a good nut first up which Nitesh ended up chipping over Mid-on for two. 3 runs to the deep midwicket boundary followed that. This brought Afridi on strike. Known for being someone who isn’t a good runner between the wickets, he called Nitesh through for a risky single which nearly resulted in ‘Teshy’ getting run out. The next over started with a boundary down to third man for Afridi. Shah adjusted his line and ended up hitting Afridi high on the pad. The ball dropped a couple of yards away from the stumps towards square leg and Afridi called Nitesh through for a ‘Yes. No. Yes. No’ single. Ross McCallum swooped in from square leg to pick up and hurl down the stumps in one fluid motion to catch Nitesh short of the crease.
This brought in D Holloway who played a textbook forward defence first up to the impressive Shah. In his next over, he caught Afridi plumb in front of the stumps. H Malik let K Moir bat ahead of him knowing full well that if he batted anything like he did against Stirling County two weeks ago, he would be in very soon. He was nearly in the very next ball as Kerr edged a single down to third man. Habib was seen doing some circuits by the boundary to get ready to bat. Dave obliged as he tried to play a pretty straight drive to a full delivery from Shah which nipped back in a touch to clean him up.
Not wanting to run in case he lost some of his gains (and the fact that he has the turning circle of an oil tanker), Habib let loose with a flurry of boundaries as Kerr wondered why he couldn’t time the ball as well from the other end. Stavert was the target man as Habib hit him for 22 runs in an over. ‘Chicken legs’ was being sledged by his own teammates from the boundary as he didn’t turn up to an important Greenwood Cup Semi-final against Clydesdale. The match was finished off by Malik who hit another boundary. If only he batted like this on a Saturday.
It was a thoroughly enjoyable game which was played in good spirit. Everybody who played contributed in one way or another. A trip to Helensburgh awaits us next week with the potential to win the league if results go our way.
#ATID