Selkirk again fell short in a run chase on Saturday in the capital, against a strong Edinburgh South side looking to cement their position at the top end of the table. It was a mixed bag of cricket for the Souters, with some fine individual plays and a performance in the field for the first 30 overs as good as any this season, Ian Gardiner and Gregor Borthwick standing out.
For the hosts, Praful Pant remained unbeaten on the day, retiring hurt on 74, playing some classy shots on his way to his total, the pick of which being two straight shots for four off of the final over from Michael Fenton.
The Edinburgh South opener rode his luck at times and on another day (probably 20 years ago) Iain Purves would have taken an easy catch at point early in the innings. Pant left the field in excruciating pain with three overs to come and may have sacrificed a chance at a century.
For this return fixture Selkirk were playing minus bowlers who took 6 of the wickets in the first game and it was up to those present to compensate. Greg Fenton (3-22) made a significant dent in the host’s innings in a spell where he was worthy of more, the only boundaries he conceded coming off the inside or outside edge.
However, other bowlers, despite their efforts, found it difficult to have a similar impact and the hosts targeted the end of each bowlers spell with an average of nine runs being taken. Vipin Gupta (23) and Frank Omozejele (15) added some flourish to the innings with some lusty shots – the latter hitting probably the biggest shot of the day with a straight six into the trees.
Selkirk were set 181 to win and, on the back of a big score last week and despite notable absences, there was some confidence in the batting. There was a steady start from Greg Fenton and Kenny Paterson who took their time to build a score and were looking towards drinks at 15 overs before calamity struck.
Run-outs are becoming an unfortunate staple of Selkirk innings, and the visitors outdid themselves with two shockers to end the innings of openers not looking likely to be defeated by the bowling at that point.
Firstly Kenny Paterson (9) had to sacrifice his wicket when called to make a run he wasn’t going to complete (even in his younger years). Then having done for his opening partner, Greg Fenton (47) sent himself to the dressing room after a mix-up with older brother Michael (a healthy sibling discussion ensued after the game!)
At 81 for 2 they were in a similar position to their hosts at that point, but Selkirk needed to conserve at least one top order wicket for the close. With 10 overs to go the hope was there but this was dashed with two wickets in subsequent overs as Sriram Govindan took the wicket of Lewis McCulloch (7) in the last over of his spell and Harry Barrat removed Michael Fenton (32) with the first ball of his.
As the middle order struggled to get going the visitors were becoming increasingly aware of batting points as the target stretched away from them. The captain Daniel Heard (16) led by example down the order and survived for a while.
With the result in the bag, the hosts used the last overs to blood irregular bowlers but rather than an opportunity for Heard it was his undoing, taking a swipe at the first looping delivery from his counterpart George O’Neill to give Sankaran V Kiran an easy catch at mid-on. At stumps Selkirk were 44 runs short.
Selkirk play Gala in a T20 at home on Thursday night, then are on the road again, to East Lothian for a league game against Tranent & Preston Village on Saturday.
Match report by Neil Gentleman, with photos by John Smail.