Thursday 4th July

Edinburgh CC 139 for 2 (20 overs); Stewart’s Melville CC 141 for 1 (16 overs). Won by 9 wickets. Ball sponsor – Fred McLeod

Our 1st XI finished the group stages of this year’s Masterton Trophy with an emphatic win over Championship leaders Edinburgh CC at Inverleith.

Edinburgh won the toss and chose to bat first under grey skies and a draughty wind from the West. It was no surprise that they set about matters in their usual aggressive batting style and Shaylen Pillay’s four overs for just seven runs was perhaps lost ion the onslaught suffered by others. All four Edinburgh bats we saw had some success with Qasim Ashraf who remains familiar from our days in the Championship striking an unbeaten 53 in double quick time to give Edinburgh a very respectable total of 139.

Ordinarily 139 might have appeared quite a challenging total but on this occasion both openers Kyle McCallum (62 not out) (pictured above) and Mikey Miller (41) were up to the requirements each playing in the manner their talents are capable of in an opening stand of 77 with Ben Wilkinson continuing in the same vein with 29 not out so that a nine wicket win was wrapped up in 16 overs without even Shaylen Pillay and Hayden Sweet being required.

The win gives us a record of four wins and three defeats and on the verge of qualifying for the play-offs. Whether this is achieved or not depends on whether Corstorphine and Grange rearrange a cancelled fixture from early in the competition and the outcome if a re match goes ahead.