Sandy Strang: Capitulation all the rage

IT'S NOT just the Sri Lankan batting that's succumbing. Our own domestic game, doubtless assisted by some sodden, underprepared pitches occasioned by the horribly unseasonal weather, has also been experiencing its own goodly share of abject capitulations.

The SNCL's billed match of the day at Nunholm turned into an enormous anti-climax as SMRH collapsed to a desultory 41 all out in just 21 overs, incorporating five noughts and a top score of extras on 12. The entire scheduled 100-over match with Dumfries extended merely until the 33rd over.

Then, bizarrely, the very next day in the Scottish Cup Dumfries themselves were the hapless victims on their own patch, disintegrating to 47 all out as Renfrew seamers Sai Majeed and Mohammed Ramzan ripped through them. The Cup also saw Gala collapse to a dismal 64 all out at Meigle Park, as Edinburgh Accies' pro Dan Rixon's medium-pace seamers accounted for all 10 home wickets for just 21 runs in only 45 deliveries, the first time anyone has taken the full set since the Cup's inception in 1966. In a surreal match in which Accies took the field with just nine men, the Borderers eventually ended up indebted for any score at all to 24 extras, including 14 wides, a goodly quotient from Rixon himself, and a five-run penalty for a helmet hit.

Most humiliating batting performance of all, though, came in the Persimmon Village Cup on Sunday at Doune, where home side Torrance Community were skittled out for just 16 by former winners Freuchie, whose recent Club President Ian Paterson grabbed four wickets for just one run to accompany his three catches.