Gaieties 26 June 2024

Manager JJ Smith

Match Drawn 

SOA 213 for 5 dec (Shiraz Husain 87*,  Ed Phillips 30*)

Gaieties 198 for 7 (Alex Ross 3 for 36)

The SOA hosted opponents the Gaieties at Queen's College on what was set to be a scorcher of an afternoon. SOA won the toss, batting first with Ayyaz and overseas gun Trish to open up. 3 of the top 4 falling cheaply on a flat one was not an ideal start but Shiraz held the innings together beautifully piecing together a masterful 87* with the middle order all chipping in as the foot was put down and accelerated towards a declaration. This was shown masterfully by Mr President who took a brief hiatus from swiping on the dating apps and took his form to the middle producing a double time 30* leading to a declaration and tea. 

Openers Ross and Pye were put to the sword early by the Gaieties top order including a familiar face, Junaid, who had already assisted in the dismissal of club teammate Ayyaz earlier in the day. The SOA quickly turned to spin legend Craig Foster and debutante Fred Witcher who started creating chances quickly, one well pouched by Basford at slip. Hints of bribery ensued as Ayyaz pushed a half tracker over for 6 from Juni at cow corner, was this some form of club bias making it into the game? 

Juni batted well with the middle order, a change of ends for Mr Foster led to the breakthrough with a quick fire couple of wickets. Barrel chested seamer Ross was back into the attack and took a break from bowling wides to try the ever reliable full toss getting the set batsman, and another next ball to put him on a hat-trick. Juni was finally removed in the 38th over for a well made run a ball 77, this leading to the inevitable draw on a very competitive game again between the two sides.