Dumfries battle for points at Uddingston

Your Move Dumfries travelled to fourth placed Uddingston in the Western Premier on Saturday in a bid to secure points to move up the league table.

Uddingston opted to bat first and prospered initially despite an early wicket lbw to Beveridge. Prolific league run scorer Awais was aided by Gul as they pushed past fifty. Despite an ankle injury an economical Alan Davidson persisted to bowl Awais for 33. Captain Chris McCutcheon followed with two wickets out caught, including Gul for 44, and when Tommy McBride ran out Lyons, Uddingston were 105 for 5 and Dumfries in a better position.

That brought past Dumfries player Niall Alexander in to bat and he proved to be a thorn in the side by scoring 25 as the home side managed a couple of important partnerships to bat the fifty overs and reach a useful 188 for 9. Brockwell broke the partnership of Alexander and Sabri by dismissing both and Tommy McGrath book-ended that with his two wickets.

Then Dumfries suffered by losing two early wickets to some unpredictable bounce as Alexander and Sabri combined again to have the doonhamers twelve for three wickets. That became even worse at five down for twenty five with the visitors seemingly out of the game. However Tommy McGrath and Uday Redipalli put together a fine 54 run stand before Redipalli was lbw to Gul for 22. Batting well, McGrath was then the senior partner in another 56 run stand for the seventh wicket with young bat Fergus Bainbridge.

At this stage the game within a game was for batting bonus points as McGrath and Bainbridge picked off the first target passing 113 and then 132 to gain what may yet prove to be very valuable additional points. Three runs later both were out, McGrath short of a deserved fifty on 44 and Bainbridge for a resolute 16 runs as the innings subsided to 138 all out with five overs left in which to chase the total.

Niall Alexander finished with three wickets for 13 to complete a ten wicket haul against us for the season across two games.

Tommy McGrath was the Dumfries Nith Valley Cleaning Player of the Match for his all-round performance and a hundred runs plus in partnerships. The bonus points gained did move Dumfries out of the two relegation places, just, with one more game left to play, on Saturday at Prestwick.

Dumfries Cricket Club can be contacted on dumfriescricketclub@gmail.com or on social media @dumfriescricket.

Uddingston 188 for 9 (50 overs)
A Gul 45, M Awais 33
C McCutcheon 2 for 18, T McGrath 2 for 23, C Brockwell 2 for 44,
A Davidson 1 for 17, S Beveridge 1 for 33
Your Move Dumfries 138 all out (45.3 overs)
T McGrath 44, U Redipalli 22, F Bainbridge 16
N Alexander 3 for 13, R Lyons 2 for 3, A Sabri 2 for 9

Online scorecard: https://www.cricketstats.org.uk/wdcu/2021/1/0910.html