Posted on Tuesday 2nd August 2005 by Neil Dowers

The last Saturday in July saw Accies' First Eleven line up in a must win bottom-of-the-table clash with Kelburne at Accies.

The visitors won the toss and pessimistically invited Fraser Murray and his team to bat first on a typical "belter" of an Accies deck.

Sid Hariharan was given out lbw early on, but then the quality of the pitch told as Fraser Murray and Richard Andrew shared a stand of 81 to give Accies a firm platform. Richard managed to hit his maiden 1XI 50 from his new position opening the batting.

In the latter stages of the innings, some manic running and enthusiastic flinging of the bat saw the end of most of the middle- and lower-order and checked the scoring rate but Accies finished with a competitive total of 184-7. On-song skipper Fraser Murray finished with a solid, unbeaten 83.

After a tea break tragically too short for Sid to finish his second slice of chocolate cake, the match really got going.

The start couldn't have been better for Accies - first ball from opening batsman/bowler, Richard Andrew, rapped Bennett on the pads in front of middle and leg and the umpire's finger rose after a huge, all-Accies appeal. The first over seemed about to turn even sweeter for Accies as Randy produced a beautiful delivery, which convinced an entire team that they had seen Kelburne No.3, Robin, caught behind. Sadly for Accies, neither batsman nor umpire was convinced by the ensuing shout.

Robin and Bailey then shared a stand of 51 for the second wicket, before Nigel Campbell outwitted the number 2 batsman and overseas player to have him caught and bowled.

Another large stand, this time exactly 50, followed before Kelburne's number 4 was trapped in front by Vedam Hariharan straight after drinks. At 101-3, Kelburne seemed in control.

Nish Goyal produced one of the deliveries of the day when he fired an in-swinging yorker through the defences of Kelburne's young number 5 to leave the score at 108-4.

Soon afterwards, Accies were again convinced that the Kelburne number 3 had been caught behind, this time off the bowling of Campbell. Second time round, the umpire saw Accies' side of the appeal and sent Robin packing for 66. Tommy Milne took an excellent catch at long-on to remove the Kelburne keeper for only 3, and Accies seemed to have a way back into the match.

Sadly then a good partnership developed which could only be broken by quick thinking and a blistering direct hit from the edge of the 30-yard circle. Sid's pinpoint throw left an unsuspecting, ambling batsman several feet short at the striker's end.

At this point, Kelburne needed only 7 runs to win from the next 5 overs and seemed certainties for victory.

Before the 8th wicket partnership had begun, though, it was over - the settled McLister hit a drive firmly into the covers and set off straight away on a run. The ball was scooped up by Neil Dowers at cover and flicked into the gloves of Edd Hunter, who quickly dislodged the bails, completing the second run out in three balls. Accies seemed once again to have a chance.

2 overs later, Vedam Hariharan took the key wicket of McLister who, frustrated by a lack of runs coming in the covers, played all round a straight ball and was bowled. 4 runs to win for Kelburne; 1 wicket for Accies.

Number 10 took a single off the first ball off the penultimate over of the innings, being bowled by Campbell, leaving number 11 5 balls to block out. He managed this for 2 balls before going back in front of his stumps, swinging across the line, being hit plumb in front and seeing the finger rise.

Cue wild Accies celebrations. Everybody knew how much this match meant and the celebrations matched its value.

Scorecard: Glasgow Accies (25) 184 for 7 beat Kelburne (8) 184ao by 2 runs