Grammar FP’s 2nd XI were at home against Dunecht and looking to maintain their winning streak. There were five changes to the team which made such hard work of beating Ellon the previous week, unavailable were Waji, Mike Hart, Doug Russell, Ben Frizzell, and replacing them were Rob Fryer, Kieran Whyte, John Davey, and two 2nd XI debutants Ian Goodenough and Harin Joy.The toss was lost by Dunecht who were asked to bat first on a cold windy day. Kieran Whyte sensibly opted to bowl from the Pavilion End with the wind behind his back. He immediately found line and length and neither opening batsman looked like scoring runs off his pacey bowling.
Rubesh was the unlucky bowler facing the elements and took a couple of overs to find his range into the fierce wind and J. Donald took advantage of a couple of legside deliveries to hit two good boundaries behind square.
Dunecht batsman A. Moat had taken a couple of blows to the body, but despite this was beginning to look more comfortable, and struck a four off Rubesh in the eighth over.
Whyte bowled his first four overs for only 2 runs, but just as Dunecht were looking like weathering the early storm, opener Donald got a faint outside edge and Muthu dived forward and to his right to take a brilliant catch inches off the ground, Dunecht 20 – 1 off 8.4 overs. Donald had played some good attacking shots, hitting 3 x 4’s in his 17 runs.
The score had progressed by 11 runs when Whyte had a chance spilled at 2nd slip as his accurate bowling put Dunecht under more pressure. But Whyte got his deserved 2nd wicket next ball by bowling Duncan with a fast inswinger.
Rubesh was given a break from running into the strong wind after bowling 6 – 1 – 24 – 0, bowling several excellent balls, but without luck. Magesh came on to bowl his offbreaks and immediately used the wind to good effect by giving the ball a bit more air.
With Whyte bowling as fast as he has done this season and Magesh bowling a great line and length, runs were not exactly flowing. The pressure told on opener Moat who was caught at fine leg when he tried to turn a ball to leg, but succeeded only in lifting a catch to Rob Fryer at fine leg, Fryer getting under a tricky catch in the wind, Dunecht 35 – 3. Magesh was bowling as well as he has done at any time with FP’s, and bowled the compact Bromley with a clever faster ball after bowling a series of accurate slower balls.
Whyte finished his brilliant spell of 12 – 5 – 10 – 2, beating the bat on numerous occasions, while getting good lift and movement off the Rubislaw wicket.
New batsman Nicol pulled a rare loose ball from Magesh for four, but Magesh took revenge next over when the batsman tried an on drive, but only succeeded in giving John Davey catching practice at mid on, Dunecht 49 – 5. The fielding was tight, with Ian Goodenough at point while not always providing a long barrier was at least providing a wide barrier.
Karthik replaced Whyte and also found the right line and length, and steadily increased his pace as his spell progressed. The Dunecht batting completely collapsed and they subsided from 49 – 5 to 52 all out as Magesh and Karthik ran through the lower batting line up. Magesh struck when he bowled DeGabrielle for 1. Next to go was Peerless who had batted stubbornly with good defence, but was brilliantly caught by Houghton low at first slip for 6, another great delivery from Karthik. New man Harin almost pulled off a great ‘Rizwan’ type catch at square leg as he got his left hand to, and then juggled the ball, but eventually it got away from him and unluckily it was spilled.
Magesh took his fifth wicket with the last ball of his spell when he bowled Burnett with a lovely off break for a duck, his analysis 12 – 4 – 9 – 5, Dunecht now 52 – 8.
Karthik finished off the Dunecht innings with two wickets in two balls, firstly having Campbell caught behind off his gloves while defending a lifting delivery, then bowling the perfect yorker to Parsons. Dunecht all out 52 off 36.4 overs, Karthik bowling 6.4 – 2 – 5 – 3.
Grammar had 53 overs to score 53 runs, but Dunecht bowlers Peerless and Burnett were determined to get their moneys worth and bowled a tight line and length, with only 8 runs coming off the first 7 overs. The first run, a wide, brought up FP’s thousandth run of the season.
Burnett struck in the 8th over when he bowled a shortish ball to Johnston who fatally went back to play off the back foot, and was beaten by a Rubislaw Roller and bowled for 3 runs. Fryer was batting with great patience, and hit Peerless for the first four of the innings next over when he swatted a full toss to the square leg boundary.
Fryer and Muthu had added 15 runs against tight bowling and some sharp outfielding by Dunecht, with Bromley being unlucky when a great return hit the stumps and went for overthrows.
But in the twelfth over Muthu failed to keep a turn to the legside down and DeGabrielle took a difficult low catch off Burnett, diving to his right at short mid wicket, FP’s score 23 -2.
There was to be no repeat of last weeks horror batting collapse as the experienced Fryer and patient Davey defended the good balls and hit the rare bad balls. Davey was maintaining his patience while Fryer took singles off the last ball of the over. In fairness to Fryer, most of the singles would have been worth more but for the healthy outfield.
Dunecht were giving nothing away as Bromley and Parsons continued to bowl tightly, but Fryer, still hogging the strike, struck two fours to help ease FP’s home by 8 wickets. FP’s 53 – 2 off 22.3 overs, Fryer 26 n.o. Davey 8 n.o.
Another convincing win by FP’s, the fifth victory in a row and keeps FP’s in third position in Grade 3. The victory was set up by the superb bowling of Whyte, Magesh and Karthik, and finished off by the experienced batting of Fryer. The Grammar bowling was as tight throughout as it had been for several seasons with a third of the overs being maidens. If we can maintain this discipline and control we will continue to be a hard team to beat. It was good to have most of the Dunecht team join us for a friendly drink in the clubhouse after the match.
Man of the Match – Magesh taking his five for and deserving his ‘comfort break’ while FP’s batted.
Champagne Moment – Muthu’s great diving catch to take the vital first wicket.
