[Neil Pickup]

Dragon 208/4 declared
Merchiston Castle 113/8
Match Drawn

The perfect season-opener. Had we wanted to go all-out for a win, we could have done a number of things: such as bowl first, declare several overs earlier, however we didn't need to, and match practice was a much more important goal. Our opening bat made his maiden fifty to kick things off, and our Canadian number five bludgeoned 36* off 24 balls as we batted onwards up until tea to give the middle order some much-needed batting time.

In reply, our lack of out-and-out pace meant that breakthroughs were hard to come by: two of the first four wickets were run-outs, and despite an over rate of 21.7 per hour (and eight men as close to the bat as we were allowed for 25 overs) we were running out of time. The final over began with six down, and though our leggie took two in three balls, when third slip put down a reasonably straightforward chance off the fifth ball, the game was up.

Lots to learn, nevertheless, and it will be a thoroughly engaging season should these stories repeat themselves - the skill and tactics of trying to knock teams over when all they're doing is dead-batting it are a whole game in themselves.