Selkirk bounced back from a narrow defeat last week with a welcome win at home against Haddington. The visitors travelled with a strong team looking to complete a double over border teams having defeated Hawick the previous week. The captain Michael Fenton won his first toss of the year and elected to bowl.
Haddington openers Alan Cruickshank and Scott Logan started well and scored comfortably off of the opening bowlers. The souters had to wait until the 10th over to break through but with the score at 51 at the end of the over the souters were looking down the barrel of a 200 run target. James Cardwell-Moore (32) looked composed but the scoring rate slowed as first change bowlers Michael Fenton and Blaine Gillie applied the brakes with only 18 runs coming from the next ten overs.
Cruickshank eventually succumbed to Daniel Heard having spent an hour and a half at the wicket for a very hard earned 32 runs, the slow outfield probably denying him a bigger score. Cardwell-Moore matched the opener’s score before he was caught by Gardiner for his first catch of the season as designated wicket keeper, racing back for a looping top edge. This was the first of a couple of wickets for Rory Banks who finished top bowler with 2 for 21 runs. The visitors added 26 runs in the final 7 overs to set Selkirk a modest Philiphaugh target of 142 for victory.
The Selkirk openers looked to take their time at the start. Nikhil Kadyan dropped a difficult catch diving forward at square leg before Greg Fenton had really got going. This was the only real chance and the visitors were going to rue this. Blaine Gillie (12) embraced his new role as opening batsman with a dogged determination and watched on as Fenton passed 50 as he tucked Kadyan round the corner to fine leg for 2 runs. Gillie’s was the first wicket to fall, with the score at 79, when Dave Aburthnott came on as the fifth bowler and looked dangerous from the start. His second wicket came shortly thereafter when he also clean bowled the captain Michael Fenton.
With three wickets down Rory Banks joined Greg Fenton in the middle and they both steered the innings in the direction of a seemingly comfortable win. Arbuthnott (2-25) ended up with top figures for the visitors on the day but losing 18 runs from his last 2 overs will have been frustrating. With 4 runs required for the victory and 7 overs remaining Selkirk managed to create some tension.
Banks was stumped over stepping a delivery from Rob McDonald and three balls later Iain Gardiner was L.B.W. without scoring. Fenton (95), looking for a big single shot finish, was clean bowled by Kadyan. Two balls later, having added one run, Gregor Borthwick and Daniel Heard never reached a solid agreement on a second, leaving Heard marooned and returning to the pavilion, also without scoring. Enter Shyam Karna a completely unknown quantity as a new recruit in recent weeks and 2 runs required for victory. Borthwick defended the last three balls from Kadyan and Shyam faced McDonald, a bowler with his tail up and the whole of the Haddington team sniffing a chance. McDonald brought the field in and tossed it up, Shyam confidently punched the ball over mid-off and ran two.
