From the Dressing Room: A tough trip to Titwood

Guest writer Ben Cole reviews a tough afternoon for the Partick XI in Glasgow’s Southside.

A glorious morning met the Partick XI as they made the short trip south to Titwood, but not before disaster struck with Captain Ross taken ill in the morning and unable to play. Alas the 10 march on. With the sun starting to beat down and a used but very good looking pitch, it was definitely a bat first day. Regrettably the Clydesdale captain was aboard the same train of thought and we took the field.

Kapila (0-62) was excellent with the new ball, beating the bat multiple times each over and unlucky to not have a few wickets on the board with a couple of chances not sticking. He was ably supported by Kadavath (2-47) who got us going with a pearler to nip back and take out leg stump. After the opening burst spin was the order of the day with three young wrist spinners itching to get into their work. Flight and guile had the Titwood XI kept under wraps and wickets fell at regular intervals with Algie (2-47) and Cole (1-40) picking up numbers 1, 3 and 4 in quick succession. Singh (1-6), the last minute replacement legging it over from work, showed there’s no need for a warm up getting straight into his work with a wicket first ball, ably caught at slip by Farr. Sadly a reminder that warm ups are essential over the age of 21, with Singh pulling up after 9 balls to prevent decimating his hamstrings. Titwood number 6 Farid threatened to take the game away with 46 at more than a run a ball but didn’t account for Vadalia’s (2-40) drift and dip to be bowled through gate. At 170-7 it was an even contest and there was potential to have the innings wrapped up under 200. The hot day and big outfield started to take its toll, however, with scoring becoming easier against a tiring set of fielders, Titwood eventually posting 275-8 from their 50.

After 40 minutes of shade and a refuel, openers Cole and Farr strode out to face the new ball. They started assuredly, supported by a number of extras from the quick but erratic opener Thaker. 39-0 after the first power play had the team in a good position to build towards the chase. After Farr (12) was dismissed in the 12th the Titwood bowlers tightened up their lines and bowled well to tight fields making scoring hard to come by. With Charde (2) and Ananthanarayanan (4) gone cheaply, Cole (41) and Scott (31) played innings that could be described as dogged (or turgid depending on your perspective) both striking at below 50. This was much to the consternation of the Titwood fielders. With the chase realistically unfeasible, Algie (9), Vadalia (13*) and Kadavath (19*) decided to have some fun in the later overs and hit a flurry of boundaries to take the team past the first bonus point maker, eventually finishing on 184/8 and loss by 91 runs.

Whilst disappointing to come away with a loss against our main rivals, there were plenty of positives to take away with a much improved batting performance from previous weeks and good training to spend 50 overs in the field. Lessons learned will be taken into next week’s home fixture against Bothwell and be kept front of mind for the return leg against Dale on the 25th July.