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02/05/2009 - KB 1's beat EUS

The opening game of the season saw Kirk Brae badgering over to the picturesque Peffermill in order to take on the might of Edinburgh University Staff. With the sun shining, the pitch in top nick and former EUSCC star Uday Panathia now playing for the Badgers against his old club, this game had all the makings of a cracker!

EUSCC skipper James Zanotti won the toss and sent Kirk Brae in to have a dart with bat. The antipodean pairing of Bruce Smith and Dave Sangster got off to a good start against the wily, ever-accurate bowling of Jeremy Beard. Dave was correctly given not out to an lbw appeal that was clearly going down leg-side and having survived the scare, started to find the boundary. Bruce, in the interim, was out to a superb catch off the bowling of Dasgupta for 10. K-Dawg Blake meandered out to the middle and it wasn't long before the Immaculate started putting on some runs. Dave and K-Man pushed the score past 75 before the skipper was diddled by a superb off break from Kiely for 43.

Blakey was joined by 1st XI debutante Ben Pearse who never really settled against the EUSCC bowlers and was knocked over for 8 biscuits. This brought Uday to the crease. Determined, focussed, quietly confident - the Little Master started picking off the wayward balls and with K-Man in fine form, the scoreboard started to tick over again. Unfortunately, after just having scored his 50, K-Dawg played and missed a sweep shot that would have gone on to hit middle stump about a third of the way up - out lbw to Iobal. A fine innings though. Adeel Saleem joined Uday at the crease and despite looking the part was out to Dasgupta for 6. KB were still scoring runs, however, mainly through Uday.

Scott Walker came in and played some typically elegant shots before controversially being given out (caught behind) by the skipper, who was now umpiring. Scott, the friendliest Badger in all of Kirk Brae, walked with little fuss, showing all and sundry just how fine a sportsman he is. The excitement of the first game of the season got to the Deepanator and he was stumped trying to post a Kevin Stratford delivery to Double Hedges. Out for 8. Uday continued to pick up runs and it wasn't long until he brought up his first 50 for the Badgers. Huzzah! May we see many more. Ably supported by Wee Gus, Uday bludgeoned a few more boundaries before being brilliantly caught and bowled by Kiely for 78. A great innings from Uday who never once looked in trouble. Expect plenty of runs from the Little Master this summer.

A bit of tail-wag at the end of the innings (Wee Gus 9, Col 2* and Giovanni 5*) saw the Badgers compile a very respectable 238 for 9. Excellent batting by the skipper, K-Dawg and Uday and some fine bowling from Kiely (4 wickets) and Dasgupta (3 wickets) set up a pretty good competition.

Tea was taken and after a bit of heated debate was given a final score of 8.5 out of 10.

Kirk Brae took to the field full of post-tea confidence. Deepan Fredrick opened with a couple of double-bumpers that, fortunately for the Badgers, weren't punished but it wasn't too long before he started to find his rhythm. At the other end, Bruce let loose with some rapid deliveries that had the EUSCC openers hopping on the back foot. He was soon rewarded with the wicket of Stratford - out lbw for 3. Bruce didn't realise he'd taken his first KB wicket until the next over, however, when he queried the umpire as to why there was a new batsman at the crease... Wake up, Brucey! Anyway, that new batsman was James Zanotti who looked to be in sharp nick - his delightful push through the leg-side for four off a Bruce Smith thunderbolt was the shot off the day. But it wasn't long before he was on his way back to the pavilion, out lbw to a Deepanator bamboozler.

EUSCC were still in the hunt though - Nick (Last Name Unknown) was scoring here and there and it was he and Richard Kiely who set about restoring the EUSCC innings. With Bruce retiring from the bowling attack after 5 overs (5-1-12-1), Col Seditas was asked to take up the KB bowling attack. Col struggled to find his normally reliable line-and-length and was punished accordingly by Nick and Mr Kiely, who was having a cracking day with both bat and ball. Deepan gave way to Adeel, whose bowling, as it turned out, was virtually unplayable. Despite not taking a wicket, Adeel bowled his 10 overs straight though for a very credible 10-5-21-0. KB weren't taking wickets though and Nick L.N.U. and Richard Kiely were batting sensibly.

As a result, the skipper turned to the leg spin of Wee Gus Rive; it was a tough ask for the Kirk Brae Young Player of the Year to come in against two well-set batsmen. He didn't disappoint though. Nick L.N.U., in an attempt to boost the run-rate, skied one to deep mid-off where the skipper snaffled the catch graciously. Well batted to Nick who survived the early onslaught from Bruce to notch up 40 well deserved runs. Kiely passed 50 in an excellent display of run-chasing but was shortly out bowled to Dave Sangster for 59. His man-of-the-match performance had kept EUSCC in with a shout: they were there or thereabouts with plenty of batsmen to come, but overs were running short and the run rate required was creeping up.

Iobal came to the crease and made his intentions clear - he was going for it. Unfortunately for him, his powerfully driven straight drive off the bowling of Sangster was deflected straight up in the air by the skipper on his follow-through and taken easily on its way back down. Caught and bowled for 1. Reflex stuff. Jeremy Beard and Alan (Last Name Unknown) had to go for it, whilst the skipper had to rotate himself, Wee Gus, Deepan and Col in the bowling attack. It proved to be a thrilling contest with Jeremy looking good and hitting some much needed fours. With Badgers on the boundary it was proving difficult for the EUSCC batsmen to hit fours and the pressure finally got to Jeremy - bowled by Col Seditas for 43. Not long after Alan L.N.U. was dismissed by Deepz in a similar fashion for 26. Needing 20 something off the last over proved too much for the Staff and they could only finish on 224 for 8 - 15 runs short.

A fantastic game played in great spirits. Some excellent batting on both sides contributed to an even contest that Kirk Brae just managed to win. Well done to EUSCC and we look forward to the return match at Double Hedges later in the year.