A barn storming century from captain Greg Fenton and a top performance in the field and with the ball earned Selkirk a bounce back league victory in Edinburgh against Kirk Brae on Saturday.
Travelling up minus 2 of their top three bowlers, Selkirk were expecting a tough challenge but batting first Selkirk made steady progress. The first wicket fell when Iain Purves called for a second run he may not even have made as a younger man but he had defiantly held up an end for the captain to make progress. Both Ian Gardiner and then Blaine Gillie tried to do same but the partnerships were only making a start.
Keiren Toor looked in good touch when he came to the crease with the score at 82 and with the captain they combined to frustrate the hosts and take Selkirk to three figures. With their partnership moving in to the 80s and Fenton getting his first century of the league campaign with a quick 2 it looked set for a strong finish. Taha Khan upset the finale by taking the wickets of Fenton (103) and Toor (32) in the same over. However a short cameo from Darren Fenton, including a six flicked over the leg side boundary from Khan’s last ball, added valuable runs to set the target of 190 runs for a home victory.
The Edinburgh top order were setting a good pace and despite the loss of a couple of wickets, they were on course. The opener Afaque Hussain, currently topping the runs scored in Division 2, took a liking to the bowling of Daniel Heard crashing 5 4s and a 6 off of his first four overs. Heard had the last laugh however when he removed Hussain, catching him off the bowling of Greg Fenton.
At 82-2 after 17 overs, Kirk Brae were still looking likely to get to their target. However, carnage ensued with a combined 7 over spell of bowling by John Henderson (4-21) and Blaine Gillie (4-22) which saw the Edinburgh side lose 8 wickets for the loss of 10 runs. Henderson and Gillie bamboozled the batters and with only one drop on the day, when the opportunities were coming quickly they were duly taken. Having solidly undertaken his opening batting duties Iain Purves did a turn in the field where he took a great catch at gully to remove the dangerous Gajander Singh, coming in to the game on the back of a quick fire 50 the previous week.
Selkirk are back up to the capital next Saturday as the second round of fixtures begin with a visit to Edinburgh CC who scored a 100 run victory over Kelso at the weekend.