In one of the two Div 3 games to survive the weather, Selkirk and Murrayfield DAFS 2nds served up their second low scorer of the season on Saturday but the Souters reversed the result with a dominant performance with bat and ball.
The Edinburgh team were sent in to bat first and made very slow progress against the miserly bowling of Greg and Michael Fenton but wickets were hard to come by. Opener Baikie (23) rode his luck at times to top score for the visitors but his opening partner only managed to contribute 2 before being clean bowled by M.Fenton. Banks (1-13) and Paterson (1-19) were brought in to the attack and continued to frustrate any progress, both also picking up a single wicket for their efforts. Paterson finally had Baikie caught behind and there was some hope that Selkirk would get through the lower order quickly.
Gardiner and Heard came on to bowl and both took early wickets with Henderson taking a great diving catch running forward at point to remove Pasala to give Gardiner his first wicket. The Murrayfield middle order rallied somewhat to keep Selkirk in the field for almost all of their 40 overs, Donald adding 18 without losing his wicket. He was however culpable for the final wicket run out with 3 balls remaining of their innings, underestimating the quality of fielding from Brodie Allan who found Ullah short with a direct hit. Gardiner (2-16) and Heard (2-17) both finished with two wickets but were outshone by M.Fenton (3-17) whose pace and accuracy was rewarded with three clean bowled dismissals.
Having bowled out Selkirk for 84 earlier in the season the visitors may have given themselves a chance of defending the 88 they totalled this time. However, this was a different Selkirk team, as it was a different DAFS XI, and the hosts never looked likely to fall short.
A gentle rain had started toward the end of the visitors innings and home players were keen to get their innings going. Murphy (10) was moved up the order to open with the skipper and deselected himself from the duck squad as he edged nervously for his first run in 3 games. Feeling more confidence, Murphy pleased the locals with a four smacked to deep mid wicket and was holding up his end well enough, which made his freakish dismissal all the more frustrating. Attempting to leave a delivery from Mitchell he managed to divert the ball from his thigh pad onto the underside of his bat and back on to the stumps.
G.Fenton was setting a relentless pace against a depleted bowling attack and Banks was also looking to waste little time. However, Mitchell (3-36) was testing technique and patience of the batsmen in equal measure and trapped Fenton (33) in front and tempted Banks (7) with a slow full toss, the Selkirk No.3 holing out to deep square leg where Krishna Dulipalli juggled but held on. Due in next, Paterson (8) was probably thinking that the game would be done without him and had to pad up quickly to join in-form M.Fenton (28) at the crease. With the ground becoming slower from the rain the pair had to work harder for their runs but the quality of shots from both was good and they quickly finished off the job, a victory sealed (in 18 overs) with a well placed push through the covers for 2.
Next week Selkirk travel south to take on the undefeated Hawick side.
