On a day that rain posed a major threat to the day’s play, Hillhead 2s vs Langloan (H) got underway at the scheduled start time of 12 pm. Langloan won the toss and elected to bat first on a wicket that had been played on numerous times and was only going to deteriorate further as the day progressed.
Hillhead 2s got off to a fine start. Snehaan Das picked up the first wicket in his first over with a glorious “cutter” delivery, finding the edge of F.C. Hamilton and Mark Forbes taking a good catch at second slip. S. Das followed up in the same over, trapping S.J. Lafferty LBW. A magnificent first over for the returning Das. Forbes was the next to follow suit, trapping U. Khan leg before. Hillhead 2s found themselves in a great position early doors, 10-3 off 3 overs. Langloan managed to rebuild somewhat but Das struck again, once again finding the edge and Forbes taking a smart catch to his right at second slip, sending A. Qureshi back to the hut. The game momentum well in Hillhead’s favour with the score sitting at 30-4.
Hillhead 2s were not helped by the continuous need to go off and on the field with the presence of heavy intermittent showers which did not allow a normal flow to our fielding innings and therefore difficult to maintain the building pressure that was on the Langloan batters.
C.A. McDonald was the next Langloan batter to fall with Henry James, another returning HCC player this season, cleaning him up and taking the stumps out the ground with his “gun” (spin) bowling. A great piece of fielding work from H. James meant S. Allison was run out following a direct hit. Now 73-6 and now in reduced overs territory, the game now a 37 over game, meant DLS was going to come into play and Hillhead knew getting a full compliment of wickets would significantly reduce the altered target for Langloan.
A series of dropped catches meant Hillhead 2s did not capitalise on this. F.M. Berryman fell for 10 with another beauty from H. James, knocking the stumps out the ground yet again. Hillhead could not find what was required to take the 3 last remaining wickets, and rain interrupting play again meant Langloan finished their innings after 33 overs, the score 112-7 and a revised DLS target of 124 in a 33 over game. The revised target could have been much lower if Hillhead had managed to take 10 wickets, knowing the total Langloan made would have been less plus the 10 wickets significantly benefiting the revised DLS target in Hillhead’s favour. However, the chase was feasible and Hillhead had to focus on the task in hand. On what was going to be a tricky wicket to bat on second, Hillhead believed this game was theirs for the taking.
Langloan 112/7 (32.4)
D/L Revised Target – 124 (33 overs)
M. Singh 16*, S. Allison 16, C.A. McDonald 16
S. Das 3/17 (9), H. James 2/30 (7), M. Forbes 1/21 (5)
Paul Bartlett and Sam DaBell got Hillhead off to a decent start. Good bowling from Langloan made it tricky for the opening pair at times, but they both dealt with it well initially. S. DaBell was the first of the Hillhead batters to fall, being bowled by M. Singh for 3 runs. S. Das followed suit, falling for 2 after being caught trying to play a pull shot off a short ball. Bartlett fell for a ground out 11. Hillhead 2s were in a tough position, 33-3 and it was clear we needed some batters to dig in, grind out some runs and build some partnerships. Ganesh Adarkar fell for 7 after making a promising start and Anand Kumar for 9 after scoring a couple of 4s. H. James and Darshan Chatrathi did what other batters couldn’t, sticking in and finding runs where they could, and were building a good partnership. They took control back for Hillhead and they started dictating the game. The game looked like it was heading Hillhead’s way. H. James unfortunately fell for a battling 22, the pick of the batters, after a ball popped up on him and a simple catch ensued. 91-6 with 7 overs remaining, the game was finely poised. Hillhead needed 33 runs in the time remaining.
D. Chatrathi losing his wicket after being run out was the first of a cascade of wickets to fall for not many runs. Chatrathi, scoring 18, would have hoped to go all the way and get Hillhead over the line but it wasn’t to be. Jamie Dunbar followed soon after, being caught after trying to play a big shot. Gowtham Kathiravan and Hari Sathian both lost their wickets in similar fashion. M. Forbes ran out of batting partners with 2 overs remaining and so Hillhead 2s fell short in what was a much closer game than previous losses.
Hillhead 2s 105 A.O. (Off 31 overs)
H. James 22, D. Chatrathi 18, P. Bartlett 11
K. Iqbal 3/25 (6), M. Singh 2/15 (7), S. Allison 2/22 (7)
Hillhead 2s take 5 losing bonus points from this weekend’s match. Unfortunately, Hillhead’s 32 extras played a crucial role in us losing this match. Again, too many of these means gifting our opponents free runs and this still proves to be the thorn in Hillhead’s side. This, coupled with a series of dropped catches towards the end of our fielding innings, proved to be the difference between us winning this game instead of the outcome of the loss. Bowling much tighter and more fielding practice is definitely needed, as well as the practice of turning shots that go for nothing into run-scoring shots with the bat. Henry James was the pick of the batters and deserves an honourable mention with a gritty 22.
Player of the Match this week was awarded to Snehaan Das for his outstanding bowling spell of 3/17 off 9, putting most balls on a great line and length and some extra zip with the cutters which made it very challenging for the batters facing him. A good return to cricket for him and we hope for more of that to come from him this season! We go again and Hillhead 2s face Partick away in what will prove to be a very challenging game against one of the strongest teams in the league. We will have to be at our very best if we are to get a result at Hamilton Crescent.
