Nail biting finish for Methlick 1st at Stoneywood
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Duthie Park was the venue for what looked like an unpredictable contest on Saturday writes Mark Woodhouse.
Stoneywood had been the unexpected winners against second placed Siyapa last weekend and a high scoring game seemed to be on the cards with a very dry and slick looking outfield.
The victors would surely be the team that kept the scoreboard under control.
Stoneywood won the toss and fancied batting first. Adam Veersema opened the bowling and it was evident that the hard track wasn’t going to be as fast as it looked, but just a push off the bat saw the ball racing away to the boundary.
Tim Duffy had nine taken from his first over which is what he would normally expect from his regular 10 over spell.
However, a combination of tight bowling and excellent work in the field saw the scoring contained and the inevitable pressure saw Duffy take the first wicket of Christianopoulos caught and bowled for 14 with the score at 23.
At the midway point of 20 overs no more wickets had fallen and despite the conditions only 79 had been scored. Lenekar and Lambley were able to push the scoring along despite some missed, but difficult catches. Jamie Jones came on but struggled to find his length and Mike Hordley bowled a very contained spell along with Shahid Choudhary, and it was the latter taking the next wicket of Lenekar with another steepling catch making up for an earlier miss by Alasdair Smith.
Khan came out to the middle and attacked from the first ball, stepping out of his crease, missing and Woodhouse removed the bails.
Unfortunately the square leg umpire didn’t see the stumping, nor hear a later snick, again to the keeper. Khan kept playing the same swipe to mid-wicket and added 42 fortuitous runs until bowled through the gate by Grant Cordiner.
Cordiner then removed Lambley stumped Woodhouse, for an excellent 75 with Stoneywood ending their 40 overs on 209 for 4, normally a challenging total but was this enough on such a fast outfield?
Woodhouse opened the innings with the third ball clipped off his legs and speeding to the boundary showing how difficult it was going to be to contain the scoring. Unfortunately Smith missed one that stayed low and was bowled for 4 by Khan.
This brought the run-machine Veersema to the crease and the two batters made use of the quick bowling to rapidly advance the run-rate. At the halfway stage the pair were well above the asking rate and Veersema reached yet another 50.
A chanceless partnership of 95 was eventually broken as Woodhouse was given leg before on 36 with another ball staying low.
With only 95 required and 21 overs remaining victory was truly in sight. Veersema seemed to be heading for another century until bowled on 65 by a very innocuous ball from Davidson. Hordley looked to be keeping the momentum going until losing his troubled leg stump for 15.
As usual, Steve Murphy looked the most dangerous, hitting some mighty blows to the boundary. That was until Goheer came on, his first ball a half-tracker asking to be pummelled but shooting along at ankle height into the unfortunate Murphy’s stumps.
The very next ball was the same and a surprised Jones tamely lifted it back into the bowler’s hands for a golden duck.
Methlick were now 6 down for 181, still requiring 29 and Stoneywood had a great opportunity to inflict the first league defeat of the season on MCC, especially as the wicket was starting to play tricks.
Cordiner was looking confident but Choudhary, after two nice looking 4s was caught on 12. The game seemed to be lost when Brian Anderson was bowled for nothing and only Duffy and Jay Allan stood alongside Cordiner and the 20 runs still needed to avert disaster.
Two boundaries from the ice-man Cordiner moved Methlick closer. Cometh the man, cometh the hour as Duffy faced the pace of Aman, with Allan looking on nervously.
The first ball was dug in short and Duffy smashed it to the boundary with alacrity. The second ball, exactly the same, and once again Duffy had a walloped a four with only a single now needed. With his eye truly “in”, the third delivery now was no trouble and Duffy duly despatched it to end a nail-biting finish and yet another victory to MCC by two wickets.
Next Saturday should see a more comfortable outcome as the first team travel to Counteswells for a match against Gordonians 3rd team.
The corresponding fixture this year saw an easy 6 wicket victory at Lairds.
The second team came off second best at Lairds against a Dunecht team who had been early season’s victims.
Two wickets from Fraser Grant in a fine spell of 25 from 10 overs and three catches at fine leg from David Low were the stand out performances in what was a disappointing result for captain Deni Sarafimoski.
Five players got into double figures but failed to progress leaving an easy target of 100 for the visitors to chase.
