Falkland Lose at Home

Falkland (8) : 165 all out in 43.3 overs.
(H Nawalage 35, C Nellies 31, U Saeed 3 for 23, J Koo 3 for 33)

Perth Doocot (25) : 166 for 8 in 42.4 overs.
(U Saeed 51, E Sloan 2 for 13, D Pearce 2 for 24)

Perth Doocot beat Falkland by 2 wkts

Falkland suffered a severe and possibly even fatal blow to their hopes of retaining the Strathmore Union when they lost to Perth Doocot at Falkland on Saturday. It was a narrow but annoying defeat, but the very closeness of the result ensured that the spectators were always interested in the way that the game swung to and fro. An outsider or a neutral would say that it was a fine game of cricket. Falkland supporters were not quite so charitable.

Falkland won the toss and batted first and after 10 Overs they were 64 for 0 wicket and really looking set for a very large score. But wickets began to fall against the niggardly attack of Koo, Saeed and Naeem in particular and Falkland were pegged back and struggled to reach 165 with only Cooray and Nellies reaching the 30s. A couple of run outs did not help the cause either.

And yet it was still felt at tea that Falkland had a chance of restricting the experienced Perth Doocot side. But their professional Saeed scored 51 before falling to a brilliant catch by Darren Pearce at Square Leg and the rest of the team all buckled to the task with veterans Ivor Patterson and Rory Pennycook at the end seeing the Perth side over the line.

Falkland had one or two absentees because of a wedding, injuries and holidays, but even so it was a disappointing performance with fielding errors and wides playing a part. But the bottom line was that 165 was simply not enough and all the more distressing after such a good and positive start from Sloan and Nellies.

David Potter