Selkirk had a morale boosting victory at home on Saturday with some welcome runs for most of the top order. Having won the toss and elected to bowl the captain stepped up with a wicket in the first over to remove Kakail Nuristani. The bowling was restricting runs but Yassar Ali was playing a patient game and was joined by Rob McAuliffe at the fall of the next wicket and they were always looking for opportunities to score.
McAuliffe took a liking to the change in bowlers and began to open his shoulders exemplified best by a sweep shot for six to the square leg boundary. The Edinburgh batter is scoring well this season but does take some chances and was dropped a couple of times. Before and after drinks the home bowlers took the upper hand as Ali (20) was lbw to new recruit Todd Dekker (1-19) followed shortly after by Blaine Gillie (2-12) and Rory Banks (2-17) taking wickets in consecutive overs.
The big wicket was going to be McAuliffe and Michael Fenton delivered his opposite number as a top edge was gratefully taken by Dekker. This saw the visitors with a total of 89 runs and 3 wickets remaining. Selkirk spurned the opportunity to keep the score as low as possible as another drop allowed the tail enders to drag their side to the 29th over, setting a target of 122 for the souters.
Selkirk have relied greatly on the batting of their opener Greg Fenton this year and the target for the home team was by no means an easy task. Following the removal of his opening partner Fenton was joined by Dekker at the wicket and there was an immediate impetus to the innings as Dekker (19) pushed for extra runs, forcing 3 where others would have settled for 2. The home batter also showed some style with some well placed shots and had shared a smart partnership of 40 runs with Fenton when he was dismissed. Rory Banks (19) replicated the partner role to Fenton and again pushed for runs and played some fine shots, pick of which was a cut shot to the boundary.
Banks was dismissed with the score at 89. It was left to the captain, Michael Fenton (15), to partner his brother Greg to the victory and leave enough of the strike so the opener could pass 50. He did this with a four off the last delivery of the game as he stroked the ball over the fielder to cow corner. Selkirk give up their pitch to the common riding sports on Saturday and travel to Westquarter and Redding on Sunday this week.
Selkirk Cricket Club 