Gala produced a dominant performance over fellow Border club Peebles in a 20 over warm up match on Thursday evening ahead of our Border T20 cup fixtures.
Having won the toss, Gala captain Josh Irvine elected to bat and opened up with the attacking pairing of Duncan Millar and Dinesh Tharanga. The pair got off to a blistering start with the ball going to the boundary at regular intervals. With the run rate going at just over 7 an over at the halfway stage of Gala’s innings, the home side were in the ascendancy. However, Peebles struck at a good time, with the visitors second change bowler Burns bowling Millar for a well made 40.
This brought Aashiq Rhode to the crease who joined Tharanga. The quick scoring rate continued and Gala accelerated to 132 in the 14th over. Tharanga eventually retired having produced an excellent half century filled with some hard hit boundaries including two 6’s and five 4’s. This brought captain Irvine to the crease but his stay at the crease was short lived as he was bowled for 1 by Peebles’ Stewart.
Siddhanth Siddhu then came in at number 5 and he and Rhode again took the game to the visitors, with both playing some powerful shots around the ground. Gala moved up to 183 for 2 from their 20 overs with Rhode (47*) finishing just 3 shy of his first half century since returning to the club and Siddhu, looking in great touch following a 50 in his previous match, finished unbeaten on 26.
On the field, Gala got off to a positive start with Duncan Millar, who was on fine form behind the stumps, taking a catch off the bowling of opener Robbie Irvine to dismiss Peebles number two Brand for a duck. Youngster Liam Skeldon, who was opening the bowling following his excellent form with the ball for the 2nds, continued in this vein as he dismissed Peebles number three James (2) after he was stumped by Millar.
However, the visitors did offer some strong resistance following Gala’s early pressure. Other Peebles opener Caddick (26*), who ended up carrying his bat through the innings, and number four Mather (29) put together a strong partnership to take Peebles up to 52 for 2. This was ended however by Rhode who had the latter stumped again by Millar. This led to a Peebles collapse as they went from 52 for 2 to 63 for 7 in the space of a few overs. Rhode went onto collect another 2 wickets on his way to a 3-fer and Caitlin Ormiston and Siddhanth Siddhu also chipped in with one wicket each and bowling very economically as well. Peebles ended their innings on 63 for 7, 121 runs short of their target.
Many thanks to our visitors for the game and all the best for the season ahead.
GALA SCORECARD
D.Millar b N.Burns 40
D.Tharanga retired not out 53
A.Rhode not out 47
J.Irvine b C.Stewart 1
S.Siddhu not out 26
Extras – 16
Gala 183 for 2 from 20 overs.
Peebles Bowling
N.Mather 4-0-20-0
E.Ogilvie 4-0-24-0
B.Ogilvie 3-0-41-0
N.Burns 4-0-33-1
A.James 3-0-37-0
C.Stewart 2-0-21-1
PEEBLES SCORECARD
P.Caddick not out 26
E.Brand ct D.Millar b R.Irvine 0
A.James st D.Millar b L.Skeldon 2
N.Mather ct D.Millar b A.Rhode 29
B.Ogilvie st D.Millar b A.Rhode 4
C.Stewart ct S.Siddhu b A.Rhode 0
N.Burns ct F.Rutherford b S.Siddhu 1
J.Brophy ct G.Ormiston b C.Ormiston 0
R.Wilson not out 0
Extras – 1
Peebles 63 for 7 from 20 overs.
Gala Bowling
R.Irvine 4-0-12-1
L.Skeldon 4-1-14-1
A.Rhode 4-1-19-3
F.Rutherford 3-0-12-0
C.Ormiston 3-0-4-1
S.Siddhu 2-1-1-1