Captains knock brings 3’s to third straight win
24th June 2023 @ Penicuik
Murrayfield DAFS 3s 159-6 (39.2 overs)
T Kumar 68*, V Patel 23, P Kingsbury 2-25
beat
Penicuik 2s 157ao (35.1 overs)
A Khan 2-21, N Pujari 2-24, V Rajendran 2-28, J Beverley 2-31, S Nagenderan 2-36, C Mackellar 69
by 4 Wickets
A warm day welcomed the 3’s on the trip out to Penicuik, looking to make it 3 wins in a row. After some stress over the travel arrangements in the morning, the whole team arrived 30 minutes before play, with captain Tarun Kumar winning the toss and electing to bowl first on what looked like a good batting deck with a fast outfield.
Murrayfield started off well, with Khan taking a wicket in his first over with a lovely delivery hitting the top of the openers off stump and sending the opening batsman off without troubling the scorers. Penicuik started to build their innings from there, with the left-handed opener in particular punishing anything with too much width. The partnership looked threatening until Beverley sent their number 3 back with a well-disguised slower ball hitting off stump in the ninth over. The two opening bowlers came off with Penicuik on 53-2 after 12 overs.
Kumar then turned to new man on club debut Rajendran, and the young leggie Nagenderan to bowl and both started strong. Rajendran struck immediately, getting his first wicket for the club with their number 4 chipping the ball to point, where Patel took the catch easily leaving them at 59-3. However, the batsmen continued to build the innings were able to move the score to 96 before Nagenderan got a well-deserved wicket, getting the number 5 out LBW. The opener worked his way to a chanceless fifty before we again pegged them back with Nagenderan bowling the number 6 with a beaut.
Kumar then brought on his 5th bowler, Pujari, rewarded for the 20+ overs of constant hinting about how he should bowl. After a couple of looseners, Pujari quickly found his line and length and kept it tight, before finally getting the big wicket of their opener for 69, making his first mistake by picking out midwicket, where the captain took a good catch, albeit while sustaining a nasty injury to his thumb.
With Nagenderan having bowled out his 8 overs (2-36), the captain brought back the openers from the far end, with Beverley picking up 1 more wicket from his last two overs and Khan doing the same. Pujari took another, before finally Rajendran was brought on and took the final wicket. Penicuik were all out for 157, all five bowlers taking two wickets each. Sharing is Caring!
158 seemed like a very chasable total, with Reddem and Pednekar going out to open the batting. Unfortunately Murrayfield’s innings started in quicksand, as scoring proved to be difficult early on. Pednekar, the in-form batsman, was bowled early for 2 by a Jaffer from the Penicuik opening bowler and was replaced by Rai. Both bowlers bowled good line and length, offering few opportunities for the batsmen to score. After ten overs, we were at 15-1, creating real run-rate pressure and some nerves on the sidelines. The scoreboard started to tick over, but still not at the run-rate required before, finally, Rai was out bowled in the 18th over trying to accelerate, leaving the score at 38-2.
This was made worse the first the first ball of the next over, when Reddem was also bowled with no more runs having been added to the scoreboard. Kahn and Waghmare tried to increase the scoring rate, with Khan striking a couple of boundaries before he too was bowled in the 20th over for 9 of 12 with Murrayfield going to drinks at the 20th over on 49-4, with a lot of work still to be done.
Out strode the captain, Tarun Kumar to replace him, who immediately looked in great form hitting multiple boundaries through cover and through the legside as Murrayfield finally started to bring the scoring rate up to par. By the time that Waghmare was caught and bowled in the27th over, Murrayfield had raced to 80-5, now just needing 77 from the final 13. This looked especially do-able with Patel coming to the crease, and he immediately added to the scoreboard with a lovely six down the ground with smashed straight into the sightscreen. Not to be outdone, Kumar matched this with an enormous six over square leg a few overs later, only just not clearing the net set up to prevent cricket balls going into the nearby houses, much to the nearby residents relief.
Kumar and Patel batted beautifully in tandem, bringing up the hundred in the 30th over and continuing to accelerate from there with good running between the wickets and some strong striking of the ball. Kumar brought up his 50 not too long after – his first for the club – and barely acknowledged the applause from the sideline, only focused on the result. The two looked set to bring us to victory before disaster struck in the 36th over as confusion between the wickets left Patel stranded halfway down the wicket with no chance to get back. He was run-out for a well-made 23 off 28. He was replaced by Beverley, who came out with the single focus of trying to avoid the strike and let Kumar finish the game.
At this point the score was 136-6, with Murrayfield needing 22 off 28 to win. This became 149-6 after 38, with Murrayfield needing just 9 to win with Kumar continuing to keep the scoreboard ticking along while Beverley scratchily sliced past fielders for singles, frustrating the Penicuik team. The penultimate over was a good one from the bowler, with only 4 coming off it, leaving us with 5 to win from the final 6 balls, with Kumar thankfully on strike. Gratefully, there was no big drama in the final over as a quick two through the covers off the first ball caused Penicuik to panic and bring the field in to try dry up the runs. The next ball was then muscled past the despairing fielder at mid-on as it raced away for four, giving Murrayfield their 3rd straight victory and leaving Kumar with a match-winning 68 not out. A great game, played in good spirits between the two teams with Murrayfield happy to contribute to the Mufslam.