BACKINTHEBIGTIME

Meigle secure promotion to Premier League after play-off win

Freuchie in Fife was the venue for the 43-over encounter, the start of which was delayed by an hour and a half as a road accident held up the Gala team on the Edinburgh city bypass.

Once Gala had arrived, Meigle won the toss and asked the opposition to bat.

Majid Rasheed had two early breakthroughs as he first found the outside edge of Pooneri’s bat – that was safely caught by Charles Clark at second slip – before then having Khalia caught by brother Zahid Rasheed at mid-off.

Indisari and Eyre then worked hard to build a partnership for Gala until Zahid Rasheed was introduced into the attack.

His extra pace caused Eyre to edge one that was welltaken low down by Alan Neave at first slip.

Gala captain Josh Irvine then entered proceedings and looked uncomfortable early on, surviving a difficult chance at mid-on.

He soon settled in, though, and began to make batting look much easier alongside Indisari, with conditions improving both overhead and on the pitch.

The pair had taken the total to 100-3 before they inexplicably tried to pinch a third run to the arm of Raju Gayashan, who had chased the ball down to third man.

A rocket throw from the Sri Lankan found Indisari a couple of inches short as he was run-out for 32.

Captain Irvine took the responsibility on his shoulders from there and played a superb innings, finding the boundary regularly at all areas of the ground – including one huge six on to the road.

At 170-5 and with the Meigle fielding and bowling falling well below its usual standard, Gala would have been confident of putting the game beyond the Black and Golds in the closing overs.

The re-introduction of Hayden Guest was pivotal for Meigle as he removed Irvine for a superb 76 before also dismissing Tharanga.

Zahid Rasheed then finished off the Gala innings by dismissing the final two batters as Gala finished on 192 all-out from 41.5 overs.

Meigle openers Majid Rasheed and Shahzeb Saeed got their side’s reply off to a solid start, with

Majid Rasheed in particular starting to find the boundary with regularity.

An unfortunate injury to Gala seamer Khalia brought the early introduction of Patterson and his accurate bowling was starting to cause the Meigle batters some trouble.

Majid Rasheed was first to go, caught LBW for 26.

Shaz Saeed started to find some fluency with a couple of nicely-placed cover drives until he became Patterson’s second victim, excellently caught behind by Millar for 20. The taking of his wicket brought the in-form Raju Gayashan to the crease, and he started as he meant to go on, with a couple of beautifully-timed boundaries.

Gayashan was a man on a mission as he continued to punish the Gala bowling, dominating partnerships with the support of Alan Neave, Josh Edington and Marcus Harvey.

When Harvey fell Meigle were still 50 short on 144-5, with work still to be done.

Guest was next in and played very responsibly to see off the initial threat of Indisari, supporting Gayashan as Meigle edged ever closer to victory.

A century looked a formality for Gayashan until he came up a bit short trying to hit another delivery into the Freuchie trees, to depart for 90 off only 57 balls.

His knock included 12 fours, three sixes and was surely his finest innings in a Meigle shirt.

The 197-6 total was sealed in style with a Zahid Rasheed six straight down the ground, to the delight of the large travelling support.