On Saturday, Gala 1st XI were on the road as they travelled to Campbell Park on what was a hot day filled with plenty of sunshine as they took on Edinburgh 1st XI.
Edinburgh won the toss and decided to bat first with Gala beginning the game with a partnership of Indrasiri and Tharanga at either end bowling.
Off the back of last weeks performance in the field it was important for Gala that they saw an improvement and improve they did. An excellent fielding display with players putting bodies on the line helped Gala limit Edinburgh in their run scoring. Tharanga grabbed the first wicket with the score on 6 after he dismissed Hassan with the help Khalia behind the stumps taking the catch. The next wicket fell with the score on 16, some brilliant work from Eddie Eyre in the field and some very poor running from Edinburgh’s batters meant Butt ended his innings being run out. Scott Paterson was then brought into the attack and claimed his first wicket early with Indrasiri involved, taking a catch a mid-off. Edinburgh managed to steady the ship with Ashraf and Farooq taking the capital side to 48-3 before Farooq (16) was bowled by Indrasiri. This was the first of four wickets that fell with the score on 48. Paterson claimed the second wicket of this period after Crooks took the catch of Ashraf. Indrasiri continued to hassle the Edinburgh batters with the last two wickets in an excellent few overs for Gala in the field. Majeed provided resistance against the Gala bowlers however, Indrasiri proved too much for the lower order taking a further 3 wickets in a quite remarkable bowling spell by himself being the main man in Gala’s performance in bowling Edinburgh out for 86. Indrasiri managed to take 6 wickets from 7.5 overs in a simply brilliant display of spin bowling whilst only conceding 8 runs.
Gala would be confident as they welcomed back Ponneri to the team, fresh off his ton the week before for the 2nd XI. However, the two Gala openers started poorly with Rutherford (1) and Ponneri (6) losing their wicket. Thankfully for Gala Khalia and Indrasiri managed to steady the innings with a 40-run partnership where they punished the bad ball, turning the game right back in favour of the travelling Gala side. Indrasiri was bowled by Haider with a brilliant cutter ball putting the nerves back into Gala. Irvine came in however and bossed the game along with Khalia with both batters managing to dig in on a tricky wicket. Just before Gala reached their target Khalia was removed as he nicked the ball to Ashraf for 30 in what will disappoint the South African after he battled hard. Eyre scored a single getting Irvine back on strike and with 1 run to win Gala managed to wrap the game up reaching 87 with Irvine (14) and Eyre (1) finishing unbeaten.
Gala will be really happy with their fielding performance after a good start, they managed to set a tone for the game. Momentum is now with the team after two wins on the bounce. The next game will be on Monday night as Gala host Selkirk in both the Border T20 and Scottish T20 Cup.
EDINBURGH SCORECARD
M Butt run out (E Eyre) 7
S Hassan c R Khalia b D Tharanga 3
Q Ashraf c J Crooks b S Paterson 16
M Munir c U Indrasiri b S Paterson 1
U Farooq b U Indrasiri 16
Z Ul-Haq lbw U Indrasiri 0
A Majeed not out 12
A Khan b U Indrasiri 0
U Haider lbw U Indrasiri 17
A Shabir c E Eyre b U Indrasiri 2
A Wadood lbw U Indrasiri 1
Extras 11
Edinburgh 86-10 off 28.5 overs
FOW = 1-6, 2-16, 3-19, 4-48, 5-48, 6-48, 7-48, 8-74, 9-85, 10-86
GALA BOWLING
U Indrasiri 7.5-4-8-6
D Tharanga 8-3-9-1
S Paterson 10-2-42-2
J Bell 3-0-23-0
GALA SCORECARD
S Ponneri c A Majeed b A Shabir 6
F Rutherford b Z Ul-Haq 1
R Khalia c Q Ashraf b A Wadood 30
U Indrasiri b U Haider 15
J Irvine not out 14
E Eyre not out 1
Extras 20
Gala 87-4 off 19.2 overs
FOW = 1-6, 2-9, 3-49, 4-73
EDINBURGH BOWLING
Z Ul-Haq 7-0-26-1
A Shabir 3-0-11-1
U Farooq 2-0-12-0
U Haider 4-0-11-1
A Majeed 1-0-11-0
A Wadood 1.2-0-4-1
A Khan 1-0-10-0