Selkirk improved their league position on Saturday with a solid win against Marchmont II. This was revenge for the souters who had suffered a close defeat in Edinburgh at the start of the season. The weather threatened to have an impact on the game but there would be only one break in play.
Selkirk had won the toss and were hopeful of a quick breakthrough with opening bowlers Daniel Heard and Michael Fenton finding some form with the ball in recent weeks. Both Heard and Fenton conceded few runs and they combined to remove the opener Ramakanth Burra, Heard taking an excellent catch diving forward at square leg. Burra’s partner was dismissed L.B.W. in Fenton’s next over and there followed a very quiet period where the Marchmont batters struggled to score and Selkirk dropped a couple of catches.
The first change bowlers Greg Fenton and Kenny Paterson continued the tight bowling and were successful in consecutive overs to remove Alex Bushell (Shyam Karna taking a great catch at deep mid wicket) and Rakesh Sachdeva for 13 and 8 runs respectively. At drinks the score was 38 for the loss of four wickets and Selkirk must have felt confident about keeping their target in double figures. However Gareth Ilsley (20) and then Karan Nagpal (32*) attacked in spurts, both managing to add a couple of boundaries. While Heard bowled Ilsley, Nagpal carried his bat and hit a couple of valuable boundaries at the end, both well timed hook shots, setting the hosts a modest target of 119 runs for the win.
Nagpal opened the bowling for Marchmont and proved as difficult as the Selkirk openers to take runs from. However, once settled, Greg Fenton looked in fine touch and, picking up the pace of scoring, had reached 43 from 41 balls when Marchmont II captain, Tom Jeffreys, brought himself on to bowl leg spin. After Fenton blocked the first delivery, Jeffreys spun the ball onto the leg stump as Fenton attempted a sweep shot.
At the other end Keiran Toor (15) must have played and missed a dozen deliveries from Ashton Mascarhenas before he edged behind. By then, stand in wicket keeper, Todd Dekker joined him at the crease and had already raced to 37 including two sixes over the leg side boundary.
The Selkirk captain Michael Fenton (10) joined Dekker and with 22 runs required from 18 overs there was no reason for rushing but by the 2nd ball of the 26th over they had reached their target. Selkirk finished with 120 runs for the loss of two wickets but Dekker (46*) had ultimately missed out on a first half century for the club. He did however score the winning runs with a boundary and then a drive through the covers for 3.
Selkirk visit Haddington next week and will look to cement their position in the top half of the league.
Sponsoring their third match of the season Eck, Jean and Fraser Heard all joined the crowd watching the game on Saturday and Jean did the honours by handing the match ball to captain Michael Fenton.
