Falkland XI, 12^th June 2011

St Andrews University Staff 194-4 (40 overs) beat Falkland 117 a/o (38 overs) by 77 runs
(U. Pathania 78*, S. Frankland 41) (B. Reiss 3-24)

A strong St Andrews team travelled to Falkland on Sunday to try and extend the winning start to the league season against a youthful and eager Falkland team.

After losing the toss again, St Andrews were asked to bat first on a pitch showing some effect from the previous day's monsoons. Nevertheless, Andy and Dom set about putting on the highest opening partnership of the season - advancing the score to 66 before Dom was out caught at midwicket. Unfortunately Andy fell soon after for a fine 39, and Tom then pushed a return catch to the bowler to complete the unenviable achievement of successive ducks, as the healthy start deteriorated to 72 for 3.

However, Uday strode to the crease to deposit a first ball 6 over the square leg boundary and never looked back from there. With Stan playing an intelligent support role turning the strike over regularly, Uday was left to power the innings back on track with some glorious shots, and more surprisingly some quick running. On an outfield where boundaries where not easily forthcoming the pair ran particularly well, at least until near the end where Uday's tiredness kicked in and Stan lapped him. With runs coming at 7 an over for the last 10 overs, the partnership ended off the final ball of the innings as Stan pulled to midwicket for 41, ending the partnership at a glorious 122, and leaving Uday unbeaten on 78 from just 74 balls.

With the pressure on Falkland having such a big total to chase, a wicket fell in the first over as Phil bowled the opener playing across the line. With he and Angus, bowling his 9 parsimonious overs in one spell as is now customary, keeping runs to a minimum Falkland inched along at barely 2 an over. Luckily for them the St Andrews catching was of a particularly low standard, with 8 chances ranging from the ridiculously easy were put down by various team members through the afternoon. Luckily Pat showed his safe pair of hands to catch the other opener off Angus to leave the score at 26 for 2. Ben then entered the fray to rip the heart out of the middle order as he took 3 for 24 - amazingly two of these were down to catches from Tom to make up for an earlier miss, although the second catch was not overly convincing as the rest of the team watched in awe at the elongated display of juggling.

The score then slipped to 71 for 7 as Stan spied tailend wickets there for the taking, clean bowling both his victims. Vikash then took a wicket in a brief spell, before taking a composed catch to give Pat a wicket. Despite the final pair offering some late-hitting, Phil finished the innings off with his second wicket after previously perplexing the batsman with a delivery that bounced four times.

Another fine win to extend our unbeaten league record to 4 games. A marvellous innings from Uday put the game beyond Falkland despite some below-par fielding by ourselves.

- Dominic Bransden