Left stumped by home side’s strength

Meigle’s EPL survival hopes were dealt a crunching blow on Saturday at a warm and windy Stewart’s Melville playing fields.

After winning the toss and electing to bat, Meigle lost Majid Rasheed early on for nine, followed soon after by Alan Neave for five.

Tom Duff and Josh Edington then found some fluency and were going well until Tom walked past a delivery from Newman to be well stumped by Ritchie for 31.

Edington hit a few more lovely times boundaries through the offside before he also inexplicably left his crease to be stumped in the thirties.

Peter Drummond was then run out after a mix up with Lamb and after 30 overs Meigle were 104-5.

Well behind their desired target on what was a placid deck and less than threatening attack, Lamb and Zahid Rasheed then constructed a good partnership putting on 66 in 16 overs but when they looked to press the accelerator home bowler Ben Wilkinson had other ideas.

He bowled both batsmen and also dismissed Meigle captain Charles Clark to stall any momentum the visitors hoped to add at the end of their innings.

Meigle even managed to get themselves bowled out before using up their full quota of 50 overs and finished on 181.

In their reply the home side began cautiously against some tight early bowling from the Rasheed brothers but not a lot was happening off the pitch and Meigle were a tad fortunate to pick up their first wicket when Bisset chopped a ball onto his stumps off the bowling of Majid.

This brought Wilkinson to the crease and he took inspiration from his bowling spell into his batting, playing some glorious shots all around the ground.

Clark tried various bowlers to combat his assault but on the flat deck not a lot was happening and along with Steve Parker, Wilkinson looked set to lead his side to glory.

He was dismissed by the returning Zahid for 62, and when Zahid bowled Miller three balls later, the visitors had a spring back in their step with Stewart’s Melville three wickets down and still requiring 60 runs.

Wicket-keeper Ritchie showed his abilities with the bat as well and counter attacked nicely to see the home team through without any more dramas.

It was a tough one to take for the Meigle boys, who were left to rue the fact none of their set batsmen could kick on the way the Wilkinson did for the home side.