Heriots 2 v Glenrothes

Glenrothes Cricket Club’s 1 st XI maintained their second spot in East of Scotland Division One after over-coming strong Heriots 2ndXI in a last over thriller at Goldenacre on Saturday.

The hosts won the toss and had no hesitation in batting first on a hard, dry wicket in sunny conditions – Glens no doubt would have done the same, especially as they only had ten men at the ground for the start of play.

Heriots got off to a flyer against the bowling of Iain Georgeson and Darren Bremner as opening batsmen D Ross and A Edington peppered the shorter of the boundaries and the fifty came up in the 12 th over. A change in the bowling saw Tiro Madiseng and skipper Mike Donaldson introduced to the attack and, with the arrival of Malcolm Neil who had been caught up in the traffic heading south from Fife, Glens managed to dig deep and regain some control of the game. Firstly, Madiseng clean bowled Ross for a hard hitting run a ball 56 in the 18 th over with the score on 88, and then with only 5 more runs added, Glenrothes enjoyed a double breakthrough when Donaldson took a skier off his own bowling in the 21 st over. In the following over, he held another catch but at mid-off this time to dismiss Edington from a Madiseng delivery. A few overs later, Donaldson claimed his second wicket of the day and the fourth Heriots one with Andy Muir taking a simple catch. In taking these four wickets, Glenrothes had managed to peg Heriots right back, and after losing 74 runs from the first 15 overs, they had only conceded a further 36 from the next 15 overs.

M Mequim and D Hamilton set about repairing some of the damage and despite the former offering a couple of chances which Glenrothes failed to take, they added a valuable 37 runs until the partnership was broken in the 37 th over when, after a mix-up, Hamilton was run out for 20. 143 for 5 soon became 155 for 6 when Malcolm Neil, who had to wait until 30 overs had gone before he was permitted to bowl, struck in his 5 th over.

Sensing that they didn’t have enough runs on the board at this stage, The Heriots batsmen opened up and increased the run rate and although they lost two further wickets to the bowling of Darren Bremner, including Mequim caught by Ian Dale at slip for a fine 62, a rapid 34 not out from A Hogarth got the Heriots total to 236 for 8 from the allotted 50 overs. All the Glenrothes bowlers stuck to their task on a batting friendly wicket and were well served by the likes of Andy Muir, Gav Henderson and Ally Sim in the field.

Regular openers Greig Hopcroft and Tiro Madiseng made a similar start to that of their opponents but disaster struck in the 12 th over when Hopcroft was well caught in the deep by D Jacobs at fine leg and then Geoff Sampson was run out for nought with the score on 49.

As in previous weeks, much was expected of Ian Dale and Madiseng who have been in superb form with the bat, and yet again they delivered the goods. Mixing ones with the occasional aggressive boundary, they managed to keep up with the run rate against a good bowling attack and some defensive field settings. They took the score along to 164 until Madiseng was caught playing a tired looking shot from the bowling of Edington for an excellent 80 (126 balls) in the 35 th over. Heriots were celebrating again when they repeated their earlier feat of taking two wickets in an over when Neil was bowled for a duck by a beauty from Edington.

Much now depended on Dale to get Glenrothes close to their target, but after compiling yet another almost customary fifty, he lobbed a catch to mid-on and it was game on at 170 for 5 in the 38 th over. New batsmen Donaldson and Ally Sim were content on taking any singles that were available to keep the scoreboard ticking along although boundaries were hard to come against some very good bowling and after 40 overs, 53 runs were still required from the last 10 overs.

Eventually, they had to take a few chances and after adding a further 30 runs from 4 overs, Donaldson missed a straight one and was bowled for 22 with the score 214 for 6.

Iain Georgeson had the unenviable job of having no time to play himself in although he had the cool headed Sim at the other end who was playing a blinder.

After only managing to pick up a few runs from the next couple of overs, Glenrothes required 20 runs to win from the last 4 overs and were well on their way two overs later getting that down to 10 required from the last 2 overs. All the pressure was lifted in the penultimate over when Georgeson connected with one that went sailing to the boundary for 4 to tie the scores and the match duly ended in the final over, albeit with the winning runs coming from a bye with only four balls to spare. Credit must go to Georgeson (14 not out), and in particular to Sim (26 not out) for the way they brought their team home at the end for the four wicket victory.

Glenrothes will no doubt face another tough game this weekend when they entertain reigning champions Grange 2’s at the Town Park on Saturday.

Click here for Saturdays scorecard