Boys' Cricket: 1st XI v Merchiston Castle

Despite damp pitch batsmen struggle to find fluidity

On Saturday the XI travelled to Edinburgh to play Merchiston Castle in overcast conditions on a damp wicket.

Choosing to bowl first, Harry’s opening over went for 9 runs – a lesson, perhaps, in the importance of starting well and the merit of accuracy over pace. James was a bit more accurate from the other end and between them, they took 3 wickets in the first 6 overs, James taking 2 for 10 runs and Harry 1 for 36.

Tommy and Rory took over from them and also got 3 wickets between them, as did Hugo and Constantin. So, wickets were falling at regular intervals which was good but some erratic bowling (and good batting) allowed their runs to creep up at a steady pace.

I thought Hugo bowled accurately again and Constantin’s looping swing befuddled the batsmen more than once. I was pleased to see the fielders showing a positive, engaged attitude and pleased to note that they are beginning to think in the field, making adjustments depending on the calibre of batsman. Theo took a couple of catches, one of them a good one, Rory and Harry each took one too and James took a caught & bowled and nearly held on to an absolute screamer at gully.

The final wicket fell to Charles which left Merchi on 121 – a few more than they should have had.

As mentioned at the start, the wicket was, understandably, rather soggy and this made batting quite tricky, especially if the ball was pitched up as it tended to stick in the surface and pop up. Short balls, however were there for the hitting and I encouraged the boys to defend the pitched up balls and punish anything short – half-shots were a recipe for disaster.

The boys struggled with no-one finding any fluidity and wicket after wicket fell in quick succession. Theo held out for a while (29 balls) as did James and Harry – Harry struck a fantastic six over the bowler’s head – but no-one else really stuck around and thus, all too soon, our innings was over with the score on a disappointing 62.

Merchi bowled well, only giving away 10 extras compared to our 32 and that, arguably, was the biggest difference. They also batted with a bit more swagger and confidence and that is something else that we can address.

We face Strathallan at home on Wednesday (they, too, beat Ardvreck) so it should be a good game. I’ve no doubt that with some small adjustments and real application, we should be able to do better in that match.

Result: Match lost by 59 runs.
MOTM: Theo – stayed in a while and took a couple of good catches.