SDCC second pre-season saw another trip up north to face Nairn County CC with a similar mixed team of juniors and seniors to last week. Despite the often very cold temperatures that included some falling snow during the second innings, the teams were able to complete 80 overs on the day in a game played with good spirits.
Nairn won the toss and elected to bowl first and this allowed SDCC to see what new signing Brayden had to offer with the bat, as he opened with Connor. Brayden started relatively slowly blocking out the first three balls before exploding with the first of six sixes as ten came off the first over from P Gerring. From the other end, S Neill came over and together with Gerring kept the runs down until the fifth over when Brayden hit the first four balls from Gerring for sixes. Brayden, as can be expected from him, was not even counting the amount of balls that have gone in the over and only thought he had hit three sixes. When attempting a fifth six in a row, he was unable to get under the bowl and gave a simple catch to Forsyth. However, an innings of 44 off just 17 balls is not a bad way to start your Scottish career. This brought Matt to the crease and together with Connor the pair moved the score to 130-1 before Matt retired with a well-made 54* off 33 balls that included five sixes.
Resident DJ, Ahklaq joined Connor and the pair continued to move the scoreboard along. Connor brought up his 50 and his retirement brought a change in the batting order as our juniors were moved up the order to gain some experience in senior cricket.
Both Adi and Thomas were able to hold up an end as Ahklaq kept the scoreboard ticking over. Ahklaq was also able to retire on 50*. Jack and Andrew had very little overs left and the Nairn bowlers deserve credit for sticking to their lines. Although wickets were not taken, the run rate was reduced considerably in the end to a much more manageable target as SDCC innings closed on 225-3 off their 40 overs.
Particularly credit should go to Gerring for coming back after the initial overs during Brayden’s assault to pick up 2-20 in his final five overs and finish with 2-55 off his quota with S Neill the other wicket taker (1-30).
Nosca clubs must have a different philosophy when it comes to teas as for the second week in a row, SDCC were treated to another contender for the tea of the 2016 season as we were spoilt with numerous varieties of sandwiches, home bakes, hot food and topped with a cup of spicy potato soup this time.
Nairn began their innings with N Gibson and I Macleod. Opening the bowling for SDCC was our very own Mr President, Robin Taylor with junior Stuart Lister making his debut for SDCC.
Both kept the runs tight in the first 10 overs and Stuart was able to draw our MacLeod (1) stumped for his first wicket for the club to bring in A Green. Together with Gibson, the pair started to see off the initial opening spells and the run rate started to accelerate before Gibson retired on 29. Neill came in and from ball one looked to send anything in his arc to the boundary. With Green also in good form, the pair took the score to 135-1 off 26 overs and the game was there for both teams.
However, Green sportingly retired when he got his 50 and 2 wickets from Connor (2-10) including Neill for a quick-fire 34 in the following over turned the game in SDCC’s favour. The scoring rate gradually reduced as the bowlers were changed around. Wickets were picked up by Rufus (1-15), Andrew McLean (1-9) before Adi came back to finish the innings in the last over of the game with the final two wickets. The Nairn innings closed on 183-10 to give SDCC a win by forty runs. The margin of the win does not reflect how close the game was and the outcome might have been different without the sporting retirement of Green.
This was a good run out for both teams as could be seen by the fact that seventeen bowlers were used on the day, eighteen people got the chance to bat and 400+ runs were scored.
Nairn MoM: A mention to Green for his 51* but Neill takes the award for his 1-30 off eight overs and 34 runs.
SDCC MoM: Connor. His unbeaten 50 was a patient and exactly what the captain asked for but his tight bowling and two important wickets meant SDCC secured a good win.
Highlight of the Game: Another award that has several options. An honourable mention to Magnus Neill who braved the extremely cold weather and volunteered to umpire the full 80 overs. However, for the second week in a row, the highlight of the game has to go to the excellent hospitality we received from Nairn, both with the food they served and the way they played the game in good spirits and allowed both sides to have a good run out to start the pre-season campaign. SDCC wish Nairn all the best for a successful 2016 campaign.