Falkland lose at Stewart's Melville

Stewart's Melville 200-6 in 40.3 Overs
(A Appleton 38, S Pillay 38, B Wilkinson 33, S Parker 32)

Falkland 183 for 6 in 41 Overs
(H Cooray 51, E Sloan 49 not out, N Tandel 3 for 24).

Stewart's Melville won on the DL Method. At Inverleith on Saturday

Falkland lost again on Saturday, but not for the first time in this troubled season they have cause to feel ill done by, not by anyone in particular but because of the weather and the vagaries of the Duckworth Lewis system. On the other hand, there were some good individual perfromances, and the best news of all was the return of Harsha Cooray who arrived in the country on late Thursday night and was able to play on the Saturday. With a bit of luck he might have won the game.

Falkland won the toss and decided to ask Stewart's Melville to bat in difficult, windy but not cold conditions. For a while this seemed to backfire when the Edinburgh side were 61 for 0 wicket and then 114 for 2, but the bowlers stuck to their task and Stewart's Melville were 200 for 6 afer 46.3 Overs when rain interrupted things. This meant that their innings was closed and Fakland were asked to make 217 in 46 Overs, Duckworth Lewis having bizarrely given Stewart's Melville another 16 runs and given Falkland three fewer balls than Stewart's Melville!

The complexities of Duckworth Lewis are difficult to explain to a non-cricket lover, but even those of us who have followed cricket all our lives were left scratching our heads over this one! However Falkland set about their task manfully, and even when another rain interruption meant that Falkland's target was now revised down to 196 in 41 Overs, Harsha Cooray and Euan Sloan looked like achieving it. The innings however floundered a little when Cooray ran himself out, (Henderson having done likewise at the start of the innings) and Falkland's brave effort ended up some 13 runs short of the Par Score. This however was good enough to earn Falkland 8 bonus points, and one feels that sooner or later, Falkland's wretched luck will turn.

As it is, with 7 out of 18 games played, Falkland are second bottom of the Eastern Premeir League, and will entertain high flying Corstorphine on Saturday.

DP