Your Move Dumfries started three wins out of three for the Dumfries senior sides at the weekend with a comprehensive nine wicket defeat of Stirling County in the Western Premier League.
Skipper Chris McCutcheon put the visitors in to bat at Nunholm and lead the way by dismissing opener Shakoor for nought in the first over with a sharp, juggling, caught and bowled. The decision of an early introduction of spinner Chris Brockwell as first change also brought success with an lbw in his second over.
Then Mulik and the league’s second top run scorer McMullen accumulated runs aided by some lapses in the field. However spinners Brockwell and Scott Beveridge combined to make in-roads into the Stirling batting. Brockwell removed Mulik out lbw for 25 and McMullen was well held by keeper Fergus Bainbridge off Beveridge for 22.
They then proceeded to exploit those breakthroughs. Brockwell bowled numbers five and six cheaply, followed by a fine stumping by Bainbridge. Beveridge held on to a well struck caught and bowled chance to his left and had the final batsman lbw as Stirling ground to a final total of 84 in the thirtieth over. He finished with three wickets and Brockwell took an excellent six wickets for 25 runs.
In the Dumfries reply Shakoor also took a wicket in the first over, lbw, to raise Stirling’s hopes but they were then squashed by a second wicket batting partnership of Beveridge and Adam Malik. Beveridge provided a resolute 21 not out and Adam Malik hit 48 not out as the pair hit eleven boundaries to achieve a rapid nine wicket win in the fourteenth over.
For his bowling performance Chris Brockwell was the James Frew Ltd Player of the Match with a match-winning 6 wickets for 25 runs, which was his second six wicket haul of the season after similar figures against Clydesdale.
The win moved the Dumfries side up from the bottom two places and the side have two remaining away matches to try and secure their place in the division. A league decision is still pending on the result of the previous week's match at Greenock which was halted after Dumfries scored 231 in the first innings due to notification of a positive Covid test result of a home player.
Online scorecard: www.cricketstats.org.uk/wdcu/2021/1/1008.html