Drummond Trinity 2nd XI v Glenrothes 3rd XI

On a damp and wet Saturday morning where 3 of 4 Glenrothes CC games had been called off the 3rd XI travelled through to Edinburgh to take on Drummond Trinity 2nd XI. The weather turned into a sunny day and was perfect for cricket.
Paul Culleton the new 3rd XI skipper had selected his team and was full of enthusiasm. The toss was his first win and elected to field. The team were all in good cheer and after several weeks without cricket were raring to get stuck in.
The skipper had opted for a youthful opening bowler partnership in Nathan Salt and Craig Muir which was very effective with a fantastic first 10 overs, no wickets, but Drummond were finding the going tough and only 21 runs being scored. The fielding was excellent from the whole team and the tails were up with extra encouragement from the skipper and Graham Dodds Snr.
Saud Khan and Qasim Ahmed then came into the attack, a variation of bowling from both ends working perfectly in tandem, again keeping tight and fielding to back up the bowlers, they bowled there 8 overs each and we restricted Drummond to 82 for 1 after 26 overs. Time for another change and on came Ross Mearns with his variation of spin bowling which Drummond tried to attack as the run rate was poor. From the other end came back first Nathan and then Craig, again a great combination of bowling. Ross was bowling with skill and sense and ended his spell 5 for 23 from 7 overs, a wonderful effort from a wise head. Robert Hutchison came on for an over at the end and finished off Drummond with 2 wickets. All the bowlers contributed and all ended with some excellent figures. Drummond finishing 137ao from 40 overs. An awesome effort by everyone in the field with catches and saving runs all round and 3 run outs.
A very happy skipper after this performance.

Onto batting where the story changed, a great first 13 overs being 43 for 1 with good knocks from Robert Hutchison and Brian Russell put us well ahead of the run rate and with clouds appearing on the horizon we were in good shape, but then things went very wrong. Some very tight bowling from Drummond meant runs were very hard to come by, whilst trying to keep the run rate up some poor shots to straights balls or miss hit shots led to wickets falling quickly and the 3s were finally 84ao from 26 overs.

A game of 2 halves it certainly was, but the skipper has many positives to take forward into the next game.