Dunnikier CC, 29th August, 2010

St AUSCC (87 a.o., G. Singh 25) lost to Dunnikier CC (88 for 7, J. Bagnall 2/11) by 3 wickets

St Andrews travelled to Kirkcaldy on Sunday morning with eight players for an early start against Dunnikier. Having lost what proved to be an important toss, stand in skipper Dom found himself batting first with returning Alex Smith ushered in as fellow opener. With a single off the first ball off the match and Alex cracking a Goweresque boundary off the second we were soon sitting pretty at 5 without loss at a run rate of 15 an over...unsurprisingly this was as good as it got. On a soft pitch, cutting up early on, with overcast skies and variable bounce, conditions to start were not conducive to easy runs.

Alex was soon bowled by the opening bowler and Dom and Richie, promoted to number 3 in his last game for the club, started to bed in without ever looking comfortable. Both had gone by the 15th over, with the score standing on just 35. Gary, a loaned player from Dunnikier decided to try and hit his way out of trouble, and helped by a couple of big boundaries scored 25 and ferried the score along to 64 for 5 off 23 overs. With Angus becoming only the second player into double figures (although no one made a duck)a final score of 87 off the full quota of 30 overs looked about 15 below par on a rapidly drying and easing wicket.

In stark contrast to the start of the St Andrews innings, Dunnikier powered to 31 off their first 4 overs and were 52 without loss after 8 overs, mainly thanks to their big hitting opener who hit 6 fours and a six in his 43. Pat made the first breakthrough in the 9th over bowling the other opener who had scored just 7 of the 52 runs to that point- luckily this wicket was enough to open up an end and begin to make the game interesting again. With Dave picking up a wicket in his third over after having a couple of chances put down, and Pat adding his second we had taken three wickets in as many overs.

Jon and our Dunnikier loanee then took over in a double change after Dunnikier had reached 70 - 3 off 13 overs. The move immediately paid dividends as Jon got their No. 5 to play on to his stumps in his first over, and Gary removed the dangerous opener in the next. With both taking a further wicket, Vikash taking a good catch off Jon, Dunnikier were looking distinctly nervous at 84 for 7, with only 2 wickets left to take. With the field close in to put the pressure they managed to mishit a shot over the head of short fine leg to reach the victory target of 88.

Overall a pleasant game which ended up being far closer than had looked possible. After a batting effort that never really got going on a tough pitch - our top partnership was only 20, it was always going to be hard to restrict a chasing team, and the Dunnikier opener pretty much won the game on his own - he was their only player who scored above 8! Good commitment was shown by all involved - thanks to Tim who travelled after us to add to the fielding effort, Alex who made his third farewell appearance for the club opening both batting and bowling, and Richie also making his last appearance.

- Dominic Bransden