Gala 1st XI travelled to the countries capital Edinburgh to play premiership team Stewarts Melville 1st XI in their second and final pre-season game before their championship campaign starts on the 30th of April. Gala would look to improve on their loss to Dumfries the week before with the hand of returning club captain Josh Irvine and overseas professional Upul Indrasiri.

With Gala captain Irvine winning the toss, the border side would bat first with Ponneri and Rutherford opening up. Ponneri looked comfortable at the crease at the beginning of the innings however his partner Rutherford struggled, losing his wicket for a duck with the score on 12. Loumeau spent little time at the crease with Newman picking up his second wicket leaving Gala 12-2. With the loss of Loumeau this brought Indrasiri to the crease, he and Ponneri both showed their class batting well until Ponneri was dismissed for 37 bringing in skipper Irvine. Indrasiri and Irvine set about their work with Irvine showing his immense power hitting ability with two sixes. Indrasiri reached 40 battering away six 4’s in his innings until it was ended as he was caught by Newman off the bowling of Bisset. Rhode then joined his captain at the crease with the pair taking the score up to 125 before Irvine was bowled by McHoul. At 125-5 Gala were well in the game until a batting collapse from the lower order left the travelling side 136 all out. Malik picked up 3 wickets for the home side near the end of the Gala innings with McHoul, Bisset and Newman all grabbing 2 leaving Khanusiya with the final wicket of the Gala scorecard.

Rhode and Tharanga would open the bowling for Gala in their defence of 136 with Tharanga picking up the wicket of Ritchie for 16 with the home side score on 29. Newman made 14 before Indrasiri bowled in Stewarts Melville opener. Gala never took any more wickets with Wilkinson batting excellently to reach his half century before he retired not out. This left Miller and McHoul to knock off the runs to reach the required total finishing the innings on 27 and 6 not out meaning the premiership side came off comfortable winners by 8 wickets.

Gala will be disappointed with how they performed in the game not challenging the premiership opposition at times however, with plenty of areas to improve on the team will look to impress next week in the first game of the championship season when they travel to Goldenacre to take on Heriots 2’s. We wish Stewarts Melville all the best with their premiership campaign next season and thank you for hosting the team.

GALA SCORECARD
S Ponneri b C Bisset 37
F Rutherford b J Newman 0
S Loumeau b J Newman 0
U Indrasiri c J Newman b C Bisset 40
J Irvine b A McHoul 23
A Rhode b U Malik 17
D Tharanga lbw A McHoud 1
M Hastings b U Malik 0
A Sujan b S Khanusiya 0
R Paterson not out 0
C Thomson b U Malik 0
Extras – 18
Gala 136 all out off 31.3 overs
Fall of Wickets: 1-12, 2-12, 3-73, 4-87, 5-125, 6-130, 7-131, 8-136, 9-136, 10-136

STEWARTS MELVILLE BOWLING
J Newman 4-2-8-2
C Shorten 5-0-16-0
V Shah 3-1-20-0
S Khanusiya 6-0-26-1
C Bisset 5-0-22-2
U Malik 5.3-0-31-3
A McHoud 3-0-10-2

STEWARTS MELVILLE SCORECARD
P Ritchie lbw D Tharanga 16
J Newman b U Indrasiri 14
B Wilkinson retired not out 51
M Miller not out 27
A McHoul 6
Extras 26
Stewarts Melville 140-2 off 18.3 overs
Fall of Wickets: 1-29, 2-46

GALA BOWLING
A Rhode 4-0-36-0
D Tharanga 4-0-20-1
S Ponneri 2-0-19-0
U Indrasiri 5-1-24-1
R Paterson 1-0-11-0
C Thomson 1.3-0-20-0
S Loumeau 1-0-6-0