Perth Doo'cot 3rd XI, 5th August 2012

University of St Andrews Staff 89-8 (44.5 overs) beat Perth Doocot 3rd XI 88 a/o (35.3 overs) by 2 wickets
(D. Miller 30) (S. Frankland 3-8, J. Lawrence 3-26)

Another good bowling performance was converted to victory thanks to some remarkably obdurate batting as St Andrews scraped home by 2 wickets in an enthralling match at Doocot Park.

After electing to bowl first, the tight opening bowling of Angus and Dave continued as Perth scraped their way to 13 in the 7th over before Angus took the first wicket, clean bowled. In his next over Angus took the edge of the new batsman and Dominic completed the job with an excellent one-handed catch at slip to leave the score at 14-2.

The 3rd wicket partnership advanced the score onto 44 as Angus finished his spell with 2-19, before Josh triggered 3 wickets in 2 overs with some excellent bowling. First the opener chipped one to Ross at cover, before in his next over Josh bowled an unplayable late outswinger, clipping the top of the off stump. Three balls later a similar delivery got a very thin edge and Trideep took a safe catch behind the stumps.

A more aggressive partnership followed of 35 in 11 overs before a double bowling change reaped reward as some excellent bowling from Phil and Stan ensured that the final 5 wickets fell for only 1 run - Stan benefiting from a superb running catch from Josh and further good catches from Helen and Trideep. The late order collapse left St Andrews with a target of 89 to win.

After recent top-order struggles, St Andrews rejigged their batting order, only to see Dom depart early for 7 after a confident start. The rest of the top order then failed to get any sort of starts, as Dave battled away playing a lone hand in the pursuit. After a slow start Dave began to attack with some well placed boundaries to keep the chase on track - by the time the 5th wicket fell with the score on 38, Dave had contributed 22. However, in his attempt to keep the scoring going Dave was bowled attempting to sweep for an invaluable 30, and Perth were looking the more likely victors.

With the score at 63-8, St Andrews still had 13 overs to score the remaining runs, and in a partnership of 26 Pat and Angus used all but one ball to do this. Displaying sound defensive technique Pat manfully blocked for 44 balls before scoring his first run, allowing extras to eke the total up. At the other end Angus contributed a couple of twos as the target gradually came closer. Tension was increased as two chances were dropped by Perth but then an edged 4 form Angus created jubilation on the sidelines as we went into the last over with the scores tied.

After 4 dots, and in the knowledge that Joe was still raring to come in to score the winning run, a bye run to the keeper off the penultimate ball of the match secured an excellent, and at times unlikely, victory as St Andrews went back to the top of the league.

A flawless fielding performance to back up the usual high standard of bowling was almost undone by top order failure again, however a welcome return to run scoring from Dave set the platform for the heroics of Pat and Angus.

- Dominic Bransden