Linlithgow

This morning, we headed to Myreside to play Merchiston Castle's 1st XI. On arriving at the picturesque ground, we got underway with some fielding practice. Captain John Oliver won the toss and put the opposition into bat. Ruairidh Russell (4-0-26-0) and Arman Khan (4-0-23-0) opened the bowling. Between them, they managed to concede just 18 runs in the first 4 overs. However, the Merchiston openers played cautiously for the first 9 overs; scoring 40 runs for the loss of no wicket. At this point boundaries were few and far between but opposition captain (Angus Hinton - 75) soon took the attack to the spinners: Jamie Percival (2-0-22-0) and Greg MacMillan (2-0-22-0). Nonetheless, Oliver's clever captaincy in bringing on paceman Adam McMurray (3-0-20-1) prove vital to restricting the opposition to 156/1 off their 20 overs. Oliver himself bowled well too: 4-0-27-0. Extras were key to the opposition's total: we gave away around 30 runs in wides. Fielding was generally tight, with a few sloppy throws but plenty of runs saved. After the innings break, Khan and Russell went out to face the first bowler. After starting with a no-ball and wide, the over went for 11 runs with Khan plundering two huge boundaries. However, it ended in disappointment when Russell was run out due to poor communication and had to depart for no score. John Oliver then walked out and with Khan, built what would be the only real stable partnership of the innings. Unfortunately, Khan had to go for a well made 32 off 40, trying to launch the spinner out of the park. This wicket proved to be pivotal. After Oliver also left after a good 28 off 29, tarnished by top-edged reverse sweeps and poor running, the middle order were left too much to do. Despite some lusty blows from TGA debutant Tom Bouttell (18 off 15 Not Out) and a steady innings from Jamie Percival (13 off 15), we lost by 21 runs. In the end, wickets were what separated the two sides. Nevertheless, there are a number of positives to take from the game. Oliver and Russell bowled particularly good slower balls while McMurray and Khan effectively varied their length. A few starts were made in the batting, but in order to win, we just had to convert these into big scores. The next game is against local rivals The High School of Glasgow in a fortnight.Read more