Thursday night saw Meigle Park host the second of three games as team Meigle and team Mossilee fought for the Kinalba Cup. Mossilee captained by Crooks were 1-0 up in the series heading into this game meaning a win would result in Mossilee lifting the cup regardless of the result in the third game. Finlay Rutherford won the toss and he and Eddie Eyre would open the batting for Meigle.
Maceira continued her brilliant form with the ball as she opened for Mossilee bowling 2 top overs, really attacking the Meigle opening pair. Despite the good work of Maceira, she was wicketless as Eyre and Rutherford managed to kick on with the scoring. Khalia was expensive in his 2 overs as Rutherford and Eyre took their opportunity to put the pink ball to the boundary. Tharanga bowled well in his 4 overs however, the Meigle openers managed to see away the Sri Lankan as they brought the score to 81. Crooks’ first over was a poor one with Rutherford (25) managing to dispatch the ball away however he would soon be stumped in Crooks’ second over thanks to the handy work of Josh Irvine behind the stumps. Crooks then managed to dismiss Eyre (57) with some good work in the field from Robbie Paterson in the field, taking the catch. The return of Duncan Miller saw him score 26 before he was well caught in the deep by Crooks as he tried to push the score on against Liam Skeldon. Sid Ponneri batted very well reaching his half century before the end of the innings as Mossilee did expertly well to come back into the game, limiting the scoring of Meigle. Rhode spent a short time at the crease before he was bowled by Skeldon which brought in Indrasiri who put on a quickfire 15 before being stumped on the final ball of the innings after Bailey Paterson managed to slide one past him. This left Mossilee a target of 185 to win as they would open with Robbie Paterson and Ajith Sujan.
Paterson was bowled in the first over of the innings by Murton, getting Meigle off to an excellent start however this brought Khalia to the crease, Mossilee’s danger man after his century in the first fixture. Khalia continued where he left off in the last fixture, really taking the game to Meigle’s bowlers scoring runs freely at an electric pace. Khalia would be well supported his whole innings by Sujan who continued to rotate the strike as he left the hitting to Khalia. Mossilee reached 74 after the powerplay and with Khalia and Sujan firing, things looked bright for Mossilee. Khalia continued to score putting Rhode and Indrasiri to the boundary countless times as Meigle could not find a way to dismiss the South African. After eight 4’s and eight 6’s Khalia would make another excellent century in this fixture as he retired. Crooks would then come out and he and Sujan would see the job through as Sujan reached is half century with the first ball of Hastings’ over finishing the game with his captain at the other end finishing unbeaten on 21.
With this result, it means that Mossilee will hoist the first Kinalba Cup on the 11th of August regardless of the result as they go 2-0 up in the 3-game series. Another good competitive outing for the club with more solid performances from all involved.
MEIGLE SCORECARD
E Eyre c R Paterson b J Crooks 57
F Rutherford st J Irvine b J Crooks 25
D Miller c J Crooks b L Skeldon 26
S Ponneri not out 51
A Rhode b L Skeldon 5
U Indrasiri st J Irvine b B Paterson 15
Extras 5
Meigle 184 for 5 wickets after 20 overs
MOSSILEE BOWLING
M Maceira 2-0-15-0
R Khalia 2-0-35-0
D Tharanga 4-0-35-0
J Crooks 3-0-17-2
R Paterson 2-0-14-0
R Gilchrist 2-0-20-0
L Skeldon 2-0-13-2
R Anderson 2-0-32-0
B Paterson 1-0-5-1
MOSSILEE SCORECARD
A Sujan not out 50
R Paterson b N Murton 0
R Khalia retired not out 100
J Crooks not out 21
Extras 19
Mossilee 190 for 1 wicket after 15.1 overs
MEIGLE BOWLING
N Murton 2-0-30-1
J Bell 3-0-31-0
U Indrasiri 4-0-40-0
A Rhode 2-0-41-0
S McAneny 2-0-26-0
S Ponneri 1-0-5-0
J Boyle 1-0-11-0
M Hastings 0.1-0-4-0