Double defeat completes forgettable weekend for Selkirk

On Saturday, Selkirk would have been relatively happy to keep the visitors to 114 runs from their 40 overs but there were regrets that they weren’t dispatched earlier, with captain Fenton bemoaning “misfields and dropped catches”.

Heriots’ top scorer was dropped a number of times, perhaps most importantly having only scored three runs.

Podugu came in at number three in the first over and saw the innings out reaching 60 runs.

For the hosts, D. Gardiner (1-16), Paterson (1-17) and Fenton (2-16) bowled tightly in their eight-over spells and Henderson took a couple of catches but was probably more frustrated about the mistakes he and others made.

The batting performance on Saturday was lamentable and, ultimately, Heriots didn’t have to work too hard, with the help of two calamitous run outs and porous defensive shots.

Selkirk were three down in the first four overs and bowled out within 22 overs for the almost unprintable total of 48, with four ducks in the top seven batsmen.

Prospects of maintaining Division 3 status are reducing as weeks go by and a difficult visit to Leith FAB this week will be a tough fixture fromwhich to try and bounce back.

The challenge on Sunday was much greater and Selkirk would need a much stronger performance to compete with a full-strength Dumfries, who are currently top of the second flight in the West.

Dumfries batted first and scored steadily from the start but, when in-form D. Gardiner (2-23) removed the openers in consecutive overs, the visitors may have hoped for a slow down.

However, McBride took a liking to the bowling and, although struggling for form in recent weeks, smashed 109 from 41 balls (scoring 53 in the last three overs).

With a total of 193, bowling figures were never going to be too pretty for the visitors and Bros (0-47) will probably want to forget his two overs and the four sixes taken off the last four balls by McBride.

Selkirk were always going to find this an insurmountable total against such opposition and struggled through the overs to get to 80. No ducks on Sunday but only two batsmen got to double figures.

There was a noted improvement from Saturday’s performance but, ultimately, a second defeat for the weekend and this all suggests the importance of a strong attendance at nets over the coming weeks to maximise league points from remaining fixtures.