Croma Vigilant Dumfries made it two wins on the bounce with a comfortable seven wicket win against bottom side Kelburne at Nunholm. After last week’s encounter against East Kilbride fell victim to the rain, the home side were champing at the bit to follow up on their impressive win over Clydesdale.
Kelburne 156 all out v Croma Vigilant Dumfries 157/3
Captain Stuart Corbett-Byers ended his three match streak and lost the toss and was put into field by Kelburne. Despite the enforced break due to the weather there was no signs of any rust as Niall Alexander got Eccles with the first ball of the match LBW. At the other end, Stuart Alexander was bowling an incredibly tight spell, as an energetic fielding display helped to build a lot of pressure on the visitors.
Niall struck again getting both openers out for ducks as McMillan nicked off behind to Corbett-Byers. Kelburne could hardly buy a run and when Porter went after a spectacular diving catch by Josh Forsyth off the bowling of Davidson for 6 runs off 56 balls with the scores at 15-3, it only emphasised how dominant the home side were in the field with diving stops aplenty. The standard could only be kept for so long as extras began to creep into the game as the thunder rumbled around the ground with Hussain looking solid out in the middle.
Scott Beveridge managed to break the small resurgence by getting Gilmour out LBW with the scores at 61-4 this was quickly followed by Joynt who quickly found the boundary twice but fell victim to a deceptive short ball by Beveridge that stayed down and hit the stumps to put Croma Vigilant Dumfries completely on top at 75-5.
Kelburne managed to show some resistance with a much needed partnership between Hussain and Wylie as they took advantage of quick singles and various extras and a 53 run partnership was formed until Hussain finally went for a much needed 51 with Kelburne on 128-6 after Beveridge got yet another LBW for his third wicket.
The second half of the batting partnership Wylie departed quickly afterwards in the same fashion off Beveridge. The tail continued to falter after McLean went for a duck after smashing a Niall Alexander ball straight to Forsyth who did very well to hang on. Alexander was able to finish on impressive figures of 4-20 after MacDonald was totally beaten for pace and edged one to the keeper. Not to be outdone, leading wicket taker this season so far Beveridge got the first five wicket haul for Croma Vigilant Dumfries bowling McLister to bowl Kelburne out for 156 and his 13th wicket of the season.
Croma Vigilant Dumfries’s confidence after a strong first innings was dented when Robert McBride got out in the second over when they hit his first ball straight to mid-off to also put Dumfries 0-1 early on. Fortunately any concerns over a batting collapse was eased by Thomas McBride and David Carlton who were able to find the boundary with ease aided with some poor Kelburne bowling.
The only concern for the home side was whether the rain that had been threatening all day would cause the match to be abandoned but fortunately it held off for the full game. Despite losing two quick-fire wickets of McBride for 18 after getting bowled by MacDonald and Carlton going for 33 after getting caught by joint for 33.
The game could have changed against them at 74-3 with plenty of overs to bat but fortunately the in-form duo of Chris Bellwood and Josh Forsyth picked up where they left off against Clydesdale with an assured partnership to put the game beyond any doubt for Croma Vigilant Dumfries. The contrasting styles of both men worked well with the brains and brawn partnership grinded out a solid match winning partnership without either man really getting out of second gear.
As the light was fading at Nunholm under the dark clouds, Croma Vigilant Dumfries kept their unbeaten home record in 33.1 overs with Forsyth and Bellwood getting 43no and 42no respectively. Forsyth narrowly leads the most runs this season with 146 to Bellwood’s 144 though Bellwood possesses a better average.
After two straight wins, a buoyant Croma Vigilant Dumfries face Greenock at Nunholm who are also on a two match winning streak after a surprising win against Ayr. Both sides have the opportunity to leapfrog several teams in a crowded mid-table in the early stage of the season.
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