Selkirk Cricket Club

Selkirk finished their opening run of three home games with a 38-run defeat at the hands of Boroughmuir in Saturday’s East League Division 3 match at Philiphaugh.

Man of the match was Gajander Singh (115*) who scored Philiphaugh’s first century of the year with considerable style and might still have been batting as the light faded if this hadn’t been a 40-over fixture.

Selkirk won the toss and elected to field, with opening bowlers Michael Fenton (1-17) and Daniel Heard (2-32) making the early breakthroughs in the 1st and 5th overs that their efforts deserved.

Singh soon hinted at what was to come, though, with a beautiful straight drive for four, but in the 13th over made a stronger statement by hitting three consecutive boundaries with precision placement to beat the fielders.

The innings followed a similar pattern for the remainder of the 40 overs, with batters at the other end always looking likely to get out, while Singh appeared immovable – reaching his 50 with a fine drive through the covers.

On a day when most catches were taken – including a great effort made on debut by John Borthwick – unfortunately the one catch not taken proved vital as Singh, at that point in the early 90s, scooped the ball to cover but the chance wasn’t taken.

The 37 runs added by the lower order batters also proved crucial. Syed Mahmood, batting at eight, looked unlikely to add much but eked out 23. Tom Richie (10*) made a cameo appearance with two consecutive paddle scoop shots over the keeper for consecutive fours, setting Selkirk a target of 200 runs for victory.

Singh’s last shot in anger was the shot of the day, a flat six over mid-on, cracking a dent in the football club fence.

As Boroughmuir leant heavily on Singh, so Selkirk looked to the Fenton brothers to play a major part in the home team’s batting response. The early dismissal of Michael meant hopes rested on the shoulders of Greg.

Missing a couple of upper order batters this week, David Gardiner coming in at four replaced John Henderson when the latter was run out in the 11th over – the first of three similarly avoidable run-outs on the day.

Gardiner (25) had only faced one ball prior to Saturday, but looked assured at the wicket paired with Greg Fenton (76), and after 24 overs Selkirk were 85 short of their target, with both batters not appearing overly troubled by the attack, scoring at five an over since coming together.

The visitors, who ended up using eight bowlers on the day, clearly felt they needed a change of tack; enter Gajander Singh (3-15), fielding on the boundary recovering from his batting efforts, but who volunteered to bowl while the outcome of the match was still in the balance.

Fenton hadn’t much of a look at Singh’s bowling in his first over, facing just one ball, but was clean bowled the next time he faced him. Gardiner, though, wasn’t unduly troubled by Singh, but lost a couple of partners before falling to Ash Kumar (2-27).

Where the visitors’ tail had some bite, the Selkirk tail succumbed. Richie’s cameo role as the finisher, with two fours at the end of the visitors’ innings, was completed by bowling the last ball of the innings, rocking back the stumps for the final wicket.

Selkirk’s total of 161 might have won almost all of the matches played at home last year, but wasn’t enough to overcome Boroughmuir and the quality of Singh.

Next week Selkirk go on the road for a match against Leith FAB at Leith Links.

Match report by Neil Gentleman, with photos by John Smail.

The start time for the match has been confirmed as 13.00

Selkirk’s Border T20 Cup match at Manderston on Thursday 8th May has officially been called off. The Berwickshire club are struggling with early season player availability, but hope the fixture might be rearranged for a later date.