Guthrie Park XI, 27th May 2012

University of St Andrews Staff 85-1 (17 overs) beat Guthrie Park 84 a/o (38.4 overs) by 9 wickets
(T. Roy 31*, U Pathania 29*) (A. Stewart 4-20, B. Reiss 2-6)

St Andrews continued their winning start to the season with another comfortable victory, making it 4 from 4 in the league.

Captain Dom won the toss and had no hesitation in electing to bowl first in the glorious weather. With Guthrie Park starting off with T20 abandon Angus showed the merits of bowling at the stumps, ripping through the top order with an opening spell of 4-20, all clean bowled. With Ben coming on to take a wicket in his third over Guthrie Park were left at 33-5 off 14 overs, whereupon the scoring rate slowed to a near standstill as Ben and Stan bowled well in tandem - Ben bowling a series of fast yorkers whilst Stan wheeled away with some slightly more sedate stuff. A stubborn 6th wicket partnership proceeded to add 9 runs in the next 10 overs before Ben picked up a second wicket to finish with 2-6, including 5 maidens. The lower order proved slightly more problematic, but with wickets shared around Guthrie were bowled out for 84 in the 39th over, Abdul picking up the final wicket with a very good caught and bowled. Disappointingly a shocking 37 of the total came from extras, without which the game could have been won far quicker.

The batting response got off to a bad start as the usually reliable Trideep/Dave partnership for once failed - Dave falling to a good catch in the gully off the first ball he faced. Uday and Trideep then proceeded to take the game away from the opposition, Trideep in particular with some eye-catching shots on his way to another not out and Uday showing pleasing glimpses of form.

Another excellent win based in good bowling and fielding, marred only by too many extras which in tighter games could prove pivotal.

- Patrick Jess