Bowling: D Petrie 4-0-17-2; M Dixon 4-0-14-1; V Gopalakrishnan 4-0-18-2; B Smith 2-0-16-0; Mayank 4-0-20-0; S Meraj 2-0-13-0

FoW: 1-; 2-; 3-; 4-; 5-; 6-; 7-;

DUSCC innings

Bowling: S Hill 2-0-9-0; J Inglis 2-0-14-1; C McConnachie 3-0-27-0; A Hill 3-0-8-0; C Walker 2-0-17-1; G Carnegie 2-0-19-0; A Wallace 1-0-10-0

FoW: 1-18; 2-61

Report

Recent-season thrashings at the hands of Forthill had not convinced many of us that this was the best place to come to stop an increasingly grim losing run. However, we surprised ourselves by winning the game by 8 wickets, thanks to a very strong all-round bowling and fielding effort, and an innings of rather frightening power from Dennis Petrie.

Alan Bell’s decision to bowl first – which prompted fears of 20 overs of fruitless leather-chasing among some – and his on-square pep talk about doing the basics right heralded an effort in which very few bad balls were bowled and three very smart catches taken – a steepler at point from Blair Smith, a catch from Scott Rodgers standing up to Dennis, and a reflex effort at gully from a well-hit square cut from Mayank. Dennis, Miles Dixon and Varun Gopalakrishnan took the wickets and deserved them.

Chasing 109 for a rare win, some pleasing shots were played by Blair Smith and Mahmudur Haque (4 4s in a high quality 20) while Steve Boarder scratched around at the other end, using all parts of the bat except the middle but somehow surviving. At the fall of the second wicket on 61, he was joined by Dennis, playing of course against his weekend club. Perhaps prompted by not-so-subtle reminders of his last DUSCC appearance against Forthill – a first-ball blob – he knocked off 41 of the required 48 runs himself in an ultra-impressive display of orthodox straight hitting. It was – how to put this in a way that is meaningful to a proud Aussie? – Bothamesque. We reaached our target in the 16th over.