Second Eleven get their Seasons Campaign off to a good start.

Following up on the 1st team success of the previous day, the 2nd team also got their season off to the best possible start.
Fielding a team of players eager to prove that they could "hack it" and do a job at senior level. On a good pitch that looked to offer a very fine balance between bat and ball, East Kilbride 2nds (hereafter known as Torrance House) elected to bat first, only because by 1pm it was still freezing!

It didn’t start well, with 1st team cover player Moody Alam, number 3 Shahid Ishaq and second opener Brian Kampman all falling quickly and cheaply to leave Torrance House faltering at 18-3 after 6 overs. However, some sensible batting by Garry Smith (33) and Nick Ralphs (35) in a partnership worth 79 for the 4th wicket saw some zest put back into the TH innings. From there, a steady chip in of runs from the middle-lower middle order saw Torrance House reach a just about par 160 from their 40 overs. This was a good comeback considering the senior players that were absent included the 2 regular openers!

With a just about par number of runs on the board, it was time for TH to show a bit more application with the ball than their opponents and exploit the conditions offered by a brilliant surface. Namely, Seam movement and some prodigious spin. This was coupled with even bounce which meant that if you as a batsmen applied yourself you would make runs whilst there being plenty to keep the bowler interested! Andrew Kampman and David Jack, two of East Kilbride’s Under 18s shared the new ball and bowled tidily. They were the only seam bowlers employed in the whole game, with skipper Nick Ralphs turning to the quartet of spinners in the team after 7 overs.

The spinners bowled admirably, new boy Vishal Raval taking 2 wickets and demonstrating a mature ability to think the batsmen out via changes of pace and flight. David Healy provided support at the other end by keeping it tidy and clean bowling the number 3 batsman for a duck. Tahir Azad and Mahmood Alam then came into the attack to take 2 and 1 wickets respectively. Tahir frankly turning the ball square and Mahmood proving hard to hit off the square! It was the frequent fall of wickets that eventually put paid to the AL run chase with the Torrance House fielding tightening up after some initial slackness to take advantage of some comical running between the wickets and get 2 run outs.
In the end a good all round performance by a team missing a few key senior players. And the captain Nick Ralph, who is normally and opening bowler, didn’t even bowl! The steps for improvement will be in the batting, specifically in taking responsibility at the top of the order and with the fielding.

Next week’s 2nd XI game vs Kingholm (St Michaels 2nds) at Torrance House.