3s Beat SMRH 4s And The Rain

Glenrothes 3s hosted SMRH 4th XI on Saturday on a day when heavy rain was forecast for the afternoon.

As skipper Craig Gould met his counterpart David Higgins on the artificial strip, they both agreed to go for a 30 over match, to hopefully give them time to play the full match AND beat the rain.

Higgins won the toss and elected to bat.

Darrens Lewis and Bremner were given the task of being the opening bowlers and the two veterans looked in good form.
However it was SMRH's opening batsmen who made the break through for the Glens, when in the space of a few balls both of them managed to get themselves ran out, attempting suicidal singles to the deadly arm of Awais Ali , who rocketed the ball into Glens wickie Andy McAulay's gloves both times with the batsmen miles out of the crease.

Big Des took the 3rd wicket with McAulay taking a fine catch down leg side. Gould replaced Lewis after 4 overs with Gavin Henderson, who was making his first appearance of the season. After a slack first over Gav struck in his second over first first of 3 clean bowleds.

Des picked up a further 2 wickets, a fine clean bowled and a good catch from Brett Wardle at first slip, before finishing with fine figures of 6 overs 3 wkts for 14 runs.

Gouldy brought himself on and was unlucky not to get a wicket when a skied shot from the SMRH batsman went high in the air to shouts of catch it from Grandad McAulay, only for the ball to drop to the side of the batsman with three Glens fielders watching it !!

Gav clean bowled 2 more of the Edinburgh side and the returning Lewis picked up the last wicket to end the SMRH innings after 24 overs for 66 runs.

Once again the Glens fielding was pretty tight with everyone contributing, Eddie Gibbs and Ian Green with a couple of fine stops
to prevent boundaries, Marshmallow man Greg Morris didn't let anything past him either, but pick of the fielders would have to be Awais Ali for his hand in the two run outs.

Both skippers agreed to a quick change round to try and beat the weather as it turned a bit greyer and chillier.
Andy Muir accompanied by Darren Lewis were the opening pair, and both looked to quickly knock the score off. Muir was bowled with the score on 24 and Awais Ali cam in at 3.
Daz and Awais made short shrift of the target , both hitting big 6s and a few 4s as Glens reached the target after 11.5 overs.
Darren finished on 34 and Awais on 24.

A fine win against a tricky SMRH side who will certainly get their fair share of wins this year. Fairplay to opposing skipper Higgins for agreeing to a shortened match and to a quick turnaround between innings to beat the weather.

As the guys brought in the flags and netting the heavens opened, so it was a well timed finish for the 3s.

The 3rds remain unbeaten this season and are the only team in DIV 8 to do so thus far.
Skipper Gould will miss the next two weeks and wil hand the reigns over to Grandad McAulay to keep this winning streak going.

Next up for the 3s is a visit to Edinburgh to take on Watsonians who will be keen to avenge last weeks rout.