Matchday 5 saw the 2s away at Inverleith to SMRH 3s, on a gloriously warm and sunny day.

A much changed side missing last week's heroes Shazad, Connor and Kashif, saw first starts in the 2's this season for Murray Paton and Greg Murdoch.

The skipper finally called the toss right and put SMRH into bat, on their artificial and with a bobbly but lightening quick outfield. The opening and first change bowlers tied SMRH down with Greg in particular bowling well and making the first two breakthroughs, before a masterclass of good length swing bowling was delivered by Neil Jarvis taking 5-20 in his 8 overs, all clean bowled, and a fantastic economy rate in a game that saw 400+ runs scored in total. At 109-7 SMRH were rocking but a remarkable 100 run partnership saw them come right back into the game, finishing on 219 in their 40 overs. Neil was the pick of the bowling with 5-20 ably supported by Greg 2-21.

Set 220 to win would be the highest total of the season and looked all the more daunting without some top batsmen this week. But if Shazad showed last week, anything is possible if you have the belief.

Greg and Neil opened the batting and were soon into a good rhythm finding the boundary at regular intervals and pacing their innings well against some accurate and quick bowling by opposition skipper Malcom and ex-SMRH 2s player Spiers. Shot of the innings was a well struck 6 by Greg straight back over the bowlers head and sailing over both spectators and tress. Greg bought his fifty up and not long after the 100 run partnership was reached and both batsmen looked set to make short work of this run chase. But the game swung back to SMRH as first Greg was caught on 58 top edging a catch high, shortly followed by Neil being caught in the next over for 47, to leave the 2s 112-2 off about 20 overs.

This bought Shrey and skipper Anwar to the crease and both set about rebuilding the innings but only 18 runs were added before Shrey was given Lbw. This bought Murray in and was the start of a fightback as skipper Anwar started to get his eye in dispatching the more frequent loose and short balls to the boundary on a regular basis. He and Murray put on 56 before Murray was out for 6, which bought Suresh in, with the run rate required still above 5 an over. But the skipper was in determined mood and was still timing the ball well and finding the boundary often. In an innings of few chances the turning point came when skipper Anwar smashed the ball to the waiting hands of deep long off on the boundary who didn't have to move, with the 2s still needing 27 off 6 overs. Fortunately the fielder dropped the catch and the skipper was reprieved. He was finally out plumb lbw for 78, 3 runs short of victory but with 3 overs to go and the win was wrapped up by Sajid with an over to spare.

Pick of the batting was the skipper Anwar with a real captains innings of 79, including 17 fours, his first 50 for the club since 2012, but victory would not have been possible had it not been for the excellent and pivotal start given by Greg 58 and Neil 47 (to accompany their excellent bowling efforts) and the support given the skipper by Shrey, Murray and Suresh.

So another fantastic win for the 2s in different circumstances to last week but all the more satisfying for having been achieved missing some key players. These 2 wins should give the 2s the belief to go on and really push on this season, with few sides looking forward to playing us. Next week the 2s are at home to Teuchters looking to continue their marvellous run in Division 6.

Editor - Following an unfortunate failure for Skipper Anwar to cope with two games of cricket in 2 days, and the even more unfortunate failure of said Skipper Anwar to be able to properly take a simple caught and bowled chance, resulting in aforementioned Skipper Anwar currently sitting in Hospital awaiting an operation to repair his broken hand,  then this weeks match report has been dictated by Skipper Anwar to the Editor to type up.  As you can see, the frequent use of the phrase 'Skipper Anwar'  is still prevelant.!!