Rossie Priory CC, 1^st June 2011

St Andrews University Staff XI 115-9 (20 overs) lost to Rossie Priory 118-5 (20 overs) by 3 runs
(D. Bransden 22*, B. Reiss 1-14)

St Andrews' run of victories came shuddering to a halt on Wednesday night as Rossie Priory gained revenge for their defeat last week.

Having lost the toss (again), St Andrews were asked to bowl first. Pat and Dave started off tidily and the first wicket fell with the score on 16 - Stan hitting the stumps at the bowler's end direct from point to effect the run-out. Ben then bowled a tight and threatening spell, finishing with 1 for 14 off his 4 overs, clean bowling the no. 3 batsman after Rossie had progressed to 44. All the while, Rossie's Australian amateur was progressing along and he began to accelerate in the second half of the innings, after running a second team-mate out thanks to good work from Dave, hitting Uday and Andy for big 6s four times, before retiring in the penultimate over with the score on 114, of which he had scored 77. With Andy bowling a tight last over, including taking a wicket courtesy of his own assured catch, we were left to chase 119 for victory.

Our reply was somewhat hindered by 4 run outs of varying levels of ineptitude as Rossie proved adept at hitting the stumps direct. With none of the much vaunted top 6 getting going we were struggling at 48 for 5 after 11 overs, with wides surging along as our top scorer. Some fine shots from Uday in an innings of 19 kick-started the chase, before he too became a run out victim. With 29 needed off the last 3 overs and only 2 wickets left, Dom whittled the chase down with an unbeaten 22 (including his first 6 for the club) to leave 6 required off the last 3 balls. Unfortunately some canny bowling meant we still required 6 off the last ball which Pat could only heave for 2, leaving us 3 runs short of the target.

A disappointing result in a game we should have been able to win without the need for a grandstand finish. Hopefully normal order will be resumed for the next league match.

- Dominic Bransden