Glendelvine, 19th August 2012

StAUSCC (106-2, R. McLennan 34 n.o.) beat Glendelvine CC (105 a.o., A. Ross 51, P. Jess 4-22) by 8 wickets

Our first ever trip to Glendelvine, which proved to be a beautiful little ground, once we had located it (after a couple of near misses...) A patchy, wet pitch which had been underwater on Friday looked hard to score on and Dom did well to call the coin correctly and opted to bowl. With Dave away in the Colonies, Helen's brother Rob was drafted in to open the bowling and performed admirably on debut, taking the first wicket to fall in the 6th over with the score on 13. Angus maintained his good form at the other end, bowling through his 9 overs to finish with 2-17 courtesy of fine catches by Josh and Dom. The Glendelvine innings was anchored by A. Ross who punished anything over pitched and attempted to swat away any short balls, often failing to make contact due to some wildly varied slow bounce from the deteriorating track. The change bowling from Josh and Stan helped keep things tight with Stan unlucky on several occasions -vicious spinning deliveries just missing the stumps and a couple of tricky chances going down in the field. A welcome return to the colours by Uday brought quick reward as he dismissed the dangerous Band for 18, courtesy of a good catch from Stan, who finally grabbed wicket of his own - sensibly hitting the stumps rather than risk any more fumbles!

The tiring Ross finally succumbed to a good stumping by Trip off Patrick who hoovered up much of the tail but not before Rob returned with a rasping spell of bowling down the hill - making the number 10 batsman thoroughly uncomfortable until finally knocking over the off stump with his final delivery. The total of 105 was perhaps 20 short of the home team's target, for which credit goes not only to the bowlers but to a generally good performance in the field, with Josh and Stefan doing well square of the wicket.

Following a pleasant tea, our innings commenced just as the first hint of drizzle came on. As the weather steadily deteriorated, Dom and Ross built a strong opening partnership, hitting gaps in the field and running hard to make the most of their opportunities. Glendelvine stuck to their task admirably despite a wet ball and slick mud in the creases causing some problems for the bowlers and were finally rewarded with a wicket as Dom hit one to mid wicket, seeking the take advantage of the change bowling. His 27 in a partnership of 46 with Ross had set the platform and Stan came in, playing with confidence and scoring strongly on the leg side as he and Ross rotated the strike and maintained the necessary rate of 3 per over. With 35 needed at drinks and the ball doing nothing for the home side, the batsmen upped the rate and Stan scored the team's first League 6 of the year with a fine blow over square leg and although he perished for 27 off 40 balls with the score on 101, Trideep saw us home with Ross unbeaten on 34.

Another comfortable win with perhaps our most authoritative batting performance of recent weeks - a victory which was thanks in part to Glendelvine's willingness to continue the match in pretty grim weather.