Gala 1st XI travelled to Loretto School in Musselburgh to play Morton on what was a scorching day for cricket. Gala lost the toss and with that, the border side were set to field first and try and restrict Morton on a rather small pitch on the school grounds.
Gala started extremely well; skipper Irvine opted to open with spin leading to Crooks having an opening spell with the ball. He and Tharanga worked excellently together restricting the Morton scorecard with Crooks grabbing one and Tharanga picking up 2 early on.
Indrasiri then took over where Crooks left off, grabbing a wicket for himself and with this wicket it left Morton four wickets down for 37 runs. Khan then came to the crease, he and Mahalingam set about recovering the Morton total and did so with an excellent 137 run partnership. As Khan attacked the Gala bowlers, Mahalingam set about his work of a supporting role and ended up with a vital 34 runs before he was caught by captain Irvine off of Ponneri’s bowling. By this point anything in Khan’s arc was disappearing into the surrounding trees as he bullied the Gala bowling to reach his century until debutant Jamie Bell managed to pick up his wicket for 111 runs in an excellent and well managed knock. Gala then managed to pick up the rest of the Morton wickets finishing them off in the 43rd over for 223 runs. Crooks, Tharanga, Indrasiri and Bell all managed to pick up 2 wickets in their efforts to stop the Morton batting order.
In reply, Gala got off to a mixed start. Rutherford fell early but with Ponneri at the other end battling hard, he was trapped lbw just shy of his half century with the score on 70. Khalia looked solid before being caught by Nair off of Jalagandeeswaran for 30. Similar to Khalia, Indrasiri also looked in good form for his knock of 35 before Nathan claimed his wicket. Eyre and Irvine set about their work to chase down their total and when Irvine fell with the score on 173 it left the Gala lower order six overs to chase another 51 runs. Crooks and Eyre worked hard for a partnership of 21 before Eyre was eventually caught behind off Daniel’s bowling. With the fall of that wicket Gala struggled to keep up the run rate and with 22 runs needed from the final order, Bell managed to sneak in a run leaving Gala needing 21 from the final five deliveries. Unfortunately for the border side it was too much work to do and with Crooks losing his wicket swinging it led to Gala falling short by 16 runs.
The Gala side will be disappointed with their performance, too slow with the bat after getting off to a racing start and not enough good deliveries with the ball led to Gala’s loss. The team would have to pick their heads up quickly though, as they travelled to Titwood the next day to take on Clydesdale in the Scottish Cup.
MORTON SCORECARD
S Ramani b D Tharanga 6
A Madathil c R Khalia b J Crooks 1
K Mahalingam c J Irvine b S Ponneri 34
K Nair lbw D Tharanga 5
R Anandarao lbw U Indrasiri 21
A Khan c S Ponneri b J Bell 111
V Jalagandeeswaran b U Indrasiri 19
A Daniel lbw J Crooks 1
S Aron c R Khalia b J Bell 1
S Nathan not out 8
D Thangavel run out 1
Extras 15
Morton 223 all out off 42.4 overs
FOW = 1-7, 2-8, 3-13, 4-37, 5-167, 6-194, 7-196, 8-197, 9-222, 10-223
GALA BOWLING
J Crooks 8-2-35-2
D Tharanga 8-3-28-2
U Indrasiri 8.4-2-29-2
L Skeldon 3-0-27-0
A Rhode 4-0-44-0
S Ponneri 5-0-25-1
J Bell 6-0-34-2
GALA SCORECARD
S Ponneri lbw V Jalagandeeswaran 46
F Rutherford c A Madathil b D Thangavel 4
R Khalia c K Nair b V Jalagandeeswaran 30
U Indrasiri c S Ramani b S Nathan 35
E Eyre c A Madathil b A Daniel 31
J Irvine b A Daniel 31
J Crooks c A Madathil b A Daniel 15
A Rhode b A Daniel 4
D Tharanga b A Daniel 4
J Bell not out 1
L Skeldon not out 0
Extras 22
Gala 207-9 off 50 overs
FOW = 1-25, 2-70, 3-95, 4-143, 5-173, 6-194, 7-198, 8-202, 9-207
MORTON BOWLING
S Aron 5-1-20-0
D Thangavel 6-2-28-1
V Jalagandeeswaran 10-2-17-2
A Khan 8-0-42-0
S Nathan 10-2-34-1
R Anandarao 5-0-21-0
A Daniel 6-0-36-5