July 28, 2023

Advantage Brigade at halfway stage in Sports Hub senior final

Brigade will take a healthy 55-run lead into Day 2 of this season’s Sports Hub senior cup final, but it took an assault on the final four deliveries of the day by Ryan Macbeth to finally give the Beechgrove side the upper hand.

Andy Britton’s side had put themselves in an excellent position having won the toss and bowled first, but having looked set to take the game by the scruff of the neck, Brigade lost their way a little in the final overs of their innings before Macbeth hit Hanu Viljoen for 3 sixes and a four from the last four balls.

Newbuildings struggled early on in the face of some good bowling from Scott (4-32) and Ryan Macbeth (2-14) as they were reduced to 58-3 before a valuable 69-run stand between Ryan Hunter and Ross Dougherty got them back on track.

Hunter hit 7 fours in his 57 and Dougherty added 40 with skipper Gareth McKeegan chipping in with 25 batting at an unfamiliar Number 7.

Any chance of a late fightback by last year’s beaten finalists was undone by a superb 10-over spell from David Barr, whose 3-32 saw the first innings close on 178.

Barr then swapped ball for bat as he and Adam McDaid added a 111-run stand for Brigade’s second wicket.

Conditions clearly weren’t conducive to quick scoring after a couple of afternoon showers to the extent that there were more sixes hit in the last 4 balls than in the whole day’s previous 572 (plus extras).

Barr was solid as a rock for his 113-ball 58 (5 fours) while McDaid’s 53 took 101 deliveries and contained 5 boundaries.

Cameron Melly made an even time 33 and skipper Britton (16) stayed with him to get Brigade’s noses in front before ‘Turf’ played his hand late on to finish 24 not out from 6 balls.

That took the lead to a more convincing 55 but while he will be annoyed at how the first day finished, Gareth McKeegan will probably feel it could have been worse, and his side is still in this final.