First report of the season: Well it is that time of year again when there is the sound of leather on willow, and there are images of people in white chasing a small red ball around a field. It has been a productive and encouraging pre-season for Dunbar Cricket, with the addition of a number of new faces to the club as well as the securing of a sponsorship from the Pine Marten, Dunbar for the upcoming season. The sponsorship is particularly welcome in that it will allow Dunbar CC to grow as a club and we are extremely grateful to the Pine Marten and Marstons for this exciting opportunity. After completing a good pre-season at the indoor net sessions at Dunbar Grammar School, the first matches of the season had been arranged for the Saturdays of the 12th and 19th of April. First up was a home friendly against Edinburgh CC on the 12th. The day itself was rather windy and cold, however it was dry! Edinburgh won the toss and elected to bat first, amassing an imposing total of 280 runs in their 40 overs, thanks to a well played 96 by their captain Imran Khan. The Dunbar bowling attack, led by newcomers Chris Paterson and Veeha Sharma restricted the Edinburgh batters in the first 10 overs or so with Chris picking up his first wicket for Dunbar after a 16 year absence from the game. Veeha was unlucky as a couple of chances went down of his bowling and he deserved more for his efforts. The rest of the Dunbar bowlers had a good work-out against some strong Edinburgh batting with new comer Abdul Basit getting some turn out of the Hallhill wicket and young Camy Miller getting two wickets after some fine work by Nigel Binnie behind the stumps. The fielding display was a bit lacklustre by Dunbar as a number of chances went down, however, it was good to get some practice in a match situation and get rid of the rustiness! The Dunbar innings never really got going with only Ian Wanless (33), Chris Greco (27 not out) and Scott Callow (23) troubling the scorers. Dunbar closed on 115 all out in response to Edinburghs huge total. Once again it was well worth the time in the middle as the Edinburgh bowlers provided a stiff test. Broomhall CC provided the opposition for the second friendly on the 19th. Once again Dunbar CC lost the toss with Broomhall deciding to bat first. Once again Chris Paterson opened the bowling and with the aid of a good catch by Chris Greco in the deep, picked up his second wicket for Dunbar. Ben Bradshaw shared the new ball with Paterson a bowled extremely well and was unlucky not to pick up any wickets as two chances went down of his bowling. The Broomhall innings finished on 169 all out with top scores of 39 by Westgarth and 30 by Orr. The Dunbar display in the field was much improved on the previous weeks against Edinburgh with a number of catches being held and in particular two great catches in the slips by Chris Paterson. On the bowling front Rob Duff weaved his magic to pick up 4 wickets, Veeha Sharma was rewarded with 3 wickets from his eight over spell and Chris Greco chipped in with 2 wickets. The Dunbar innings got off to a flying start with Chris Greco opening the innings and soon the run rate was rattling along at nearly seven runs and over. Unfortunately Dunbar were losing wickets at regular intervals, with Chris Greco (16), Veeha Sharma (18) and Ben Bradshaw (13) all having a go. Rob Duff was joined by Scott Callow at the crease and the pair went about steadying the ship with the score creeping up to 100. The departure of Callow and Duff, both for 18, meant it was down to the lower order to try an get the runs. Abdul Basit played a fine innings of 22 not out and aided by Andy Crawford nearly got Dunbar over the line, falling 14 runs short. All in all another productive match, with a much improved display in the field. After both matches it was good to see that the two visiting teams joined the Dunbar players at the Pine Marten for a couple of refreshments and discussion about matters cricket! Dunbar play their first league match of the season this Saturday 26th April. It is an away fixture against Old Contemptibles at Inverleith Park. Hopefully we can get off to a winning start and have a successful season in Division 6 this year.
Posted on: Tue, 22 Apr 2014 17:24:38 +0000
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