Galloway Seconds produced a hard-working performance against Milngavie Seconds at Garscube on Saturday that ended in defeat by 63 runs. It was the sort of fixture that would probably have been lost by over 100 runs last season, such is the team’s progress.
Skipper John Goodenough opted to field first and opened with a mixture of pace and spin. Sifat bowled nine decent overs without reward, hampered by a back injury and some dropped catches in his second spell.
Rasel was the star bowler, with ten economical overs that included two wickets as Milngavie were limited to 88-2 at drinks. He had the dangerous left-hander Seela LBW on his back leg, and Jain superbly held by the diving Simon Mein at mid off.
Lawrence Costa struck with the first ball after drinks, having Gaveda deftly caught for 49 by Paul Swift at long on when the ball finally descended. His six tidy overs also saw the removal of Mahajan, caught at cover. Swifty later bowled five miserly overs.
The innings was interrupted by three short rain breaks, and the paciest bowler Arif Ullah struggled to keep his footing, being unable to wear spikes on the brand new artificial pitch. Although expensive at times he also suffered from dropped catches and delivered two beauties in consecutive deliveries to bowl Willis for 31 and MacKinnon first ball.
The Galloway reply started slowly in the face of very accurate bowling from Ghosh, who had ended on 46 not out, and Seela. Andy Naylor could only manage three singles before being dismissed LBW in the ninth over, and Simon Mein still wasn’t off the mark after 23 balls.
He blossomed when Rasel came to the crease and the pair added 40 in ten overs, before Rasel was caught at slip off a top edge for eleven. Arif maintained the momentum with a glorious straight six and another over mid wicket, and was on 17 when he lost his leg stump.
Sifat Rabby helped Simon take the score to 88-3, and although the final seven wickets then fell in the space of 35 runs this was enough to secure a bonus point and bring Galloway close to two more in the final over.
Both Sifat and man of the match Simon fell to catches at square leg, and the next four wickets were all bowled. John went for five to an off break, Paul Swift via his pad for seven, Andy Whittaker was hindered by a leg injury and John Dougan was yorked.
An enterprising run-a-ball innings of 13 by Lawrence ensured the match wasn’t pointless for Galloway, and he was run out in the last over in search of more points, leaving John Locke on three not out.
The team remains seventh in the league, and visits Glenpark in Greenock on Saturday.
Milngavie II 186-6 (40 overs) R Mia 2-27, L Costa 2-32, A Ullah 2-62
Galloway II 123 (39.1 overs) S Mein 34, A Ullah 17
