Master Blasters produced the surprise of the day when they had a 131 run victory over Crescent. 109 from Hari Ganesan and Jay Gajjar with 64 helped Master Blasters post 256 all out from their 40 overs. Only Ankush Sharma with 46 made a sizable contribution for Crescent as Hemal Chovatiya took 4 for 26 and Gajjar took 3 for 14 to cap off a fine game.
Knightriders returned to winning ways with a 4 wicket win against Cults. 4 for 9 from 8 overs by Uday Reddy dismantled the Cults middle order as they were bowled out for 125. Muhammad Tahir with 4 from 44 helped Cults to more bonus points than they were probably expecting as the Knights got home with 16 overs to spare.
Grammar will surely be getting drug tested after racking up the highest score of the day in Grade 1 as they put on 273 for 5 at Rubislaw against 2nd Knightriders. 75 from Agha Haider and 70 not out from Aman Sood providing the backbone for this total. 2nd Knights were bowled out for a credible 192 to give Grammar an 81 run victory with Big Prash taking 4 for 33 and Sood taking 3 for 34.
Despite 70 from Jordan Thom and 48 from George Hadden Inverurie posted a below par 192 for 6 against Bon Accord at the Links. As per usual the Bons batsmen must have had a big night out to go to as they began their chase in a hurry. 44 from Fazal Awan and 59 from Omerkhail took the Bons to the brink before Matt Startin with 3 for 14 made inroads but the Bons got home with 3 wickets to spare.
Chandu’s chargers capitulated against Gordonians at Countesswells. Gordos bowled out their visitors for 84 with Matiullah Yar taking 5 for 20. Mannofield did manage to take 5 wickets as Gordos reached their total 5 down.
In Grade 2 Fraserburgh made short work of 2nd Grampian bowling the home side out for 44 with Alan Rennie taking 4 for 10 and celebrity farmer Chris Gospel taking 3 for 17.
Grampian put Portcullis to the sword spanking 298 for 4 with Mynul Nadmin scoring 161 and I’m presuming there wasn’t many singles as part of that knock. Jeby George also chipped in with 54 not out. Portcullis were bowled out for 93 in reply with the wickets shared round.
Rich Greenfield had a day to remember for Ellon first by scoring 55 as he’s not accustomed to getting a half century for fear of having to buy a jug then he took 3 for 11 but this great effort was in vain as Siyapa knocked off the Ellon total only losing 4 wickets as Shabram Memon top scored with 36.
In Grade 3 Methlick romped to an 8 wicket win over 3rd Gordonians. 50 not out from Steve Murphy helped chase down the 110 for 8 total posted by Gordos as Colin Addison and Tim Duffy shared 6 wickets.
Barney Ingram, Barney Ingram remember the name says Alan Burnett after the debutant’s 51 from Dunecht’s 127 total that they posted against 2nd Gordonians. Dunecht then bowled Gordos out for 80 despite 45 from Simon Hounsome.
Stoneywood Dyce had an 8 wicket win over Crathie.
Huntly had a nerve wracking 2 wicket win over 2nd Siyapa with Lewis Myron-Petrie with 16 from 64 balls seeing them home.
If you haven’t read it anywhere else then you read it here first. The SPCU North East Championship is heading to Meigle (multiple T&Cs apply to all predictions). Huntly brought a very slippery banana skin to Mannofield on Saturday and their bowlers delivered the goods as Irtaza Hussain removed both the Aberdeenshire openers. The experienced Barry Newlands had Dian Forrester caught behind for 15 and Shire needed a repair job from Clark Cameron with an unbeaten 35 to take the total to 187 for 9. Forrester and Lewis Munro have been blitzing their way through most top orders, but a century opening stand between Jack Mitchell and Nick Cuconits put Huntly in the driving seat, Cuconits eventually undefeated on 71 as they won in 43 overs for the loss of 6 wickets. Huntly and Shire are now equal on points in 2nd place.
The Meigle batters turned the screws on the 2nd Stoneywood Dyce bowlers from the off. It was 156 for 3 when Majid Rasheed was out, and he had made 115 of them. Hayden Guest weighed in with a half century as Meigle piled up 323. Rasheed then took 3 quick wickets for only 12 to halt any run chase before it even got going, but credit to Mike Louw for making 67 out of the SDCC total of 187.
Gordonians held on to 4th spot in the league with a 4 wicket win at a sun blasted Forfar against Strathmore. 55 from Haydn Evans took the hosts to 205 for 8. 41 from Adi Hegde and 43 from Himanshu Saraswat got Gordos off to a good start, but they needed an unbeaten 35 from Shaunak Bhatta to complete the win.
The Freuchie vulnerabilities without Safyaan Sharif were laid bare by Kinloch. Dale Cowan made a quick 65 to give Freuchie a respectable 224 all out, but a belligerent 103 not out from Shahzad Ahmed gave Kinloch a 5 wicket win. 95 from Pro Usman Saeed saved Perth Doocot from potential defeat by Dundee High. Their 245 for 9 was far too much for Dundee, but 78 from the Dundee overseas player Joel Rush took them to 165 for 9, a respectable defeat for a change. 176 for 8 is a below par score on the Arbroath ground, and it was no surprise that 2nd Arbroath only lost 3 wickets overhauling the target set by 2nd Forfarshire, Ben O’Mara being 66 not out.
Gordonians got a surprise from Perth Doocot in the semi final at 3 Counties Cup finals day on Sunday. Perth openers Babar Ali and Tassawar Hussain went for it from ball one and just kept going at it. A lot of clean hitting took them to 74 off 6 overs, and by the time they were both out for 61 and 60 respectively, the score was 138 off 13. Pro Usman Saeed didn’t pepper the boundary with the same regularity but his 40 helped Perth to 202 for 4. Himanshu Saraswat got ahead of his bowling figures with a very quick 45 and when Abrar Ahmed was out for 62, Gordos had reached 138 in only 3 balls fewer than Perth had. The game turned on the introduction to the bowling of Saeed who took 4 for 22 off his 4 overs, Gordos finishing on 185 for 6. Meigle restricted Perth to 132 in the final, but were too slow out of the blocks when chasing and Perth won the 3 Counties Cup for the first time by 7 runs.
Ollie Hairs has been smashing it around for Watsonian in the Eastern Premier League all season. His visit to People’s Park on Saturday saw him notch his 7th half century of the league season, his innings of 65 off only 43 balls. The rest of the mere mortals in his side were not so fluent and Du Preez Stander took 4 for 32 to restrict the visitors to 205 for 9. The Stoneywood Dyce reply was similar to so many this season as they found themselves reduced to 54 for 6, but 75 from Ewan Davidson and 35 from Andrew Maclaren had them in the hunt for a while until Hairs removed them both and took 5 for 28. SDCC were all out for 168. They did however extend the gap between themselves and bottom side Arbroath, although that was largely thanks to Forfarshire thumping Arbroath. Marc Petrie scored 63 for Arbroath as they were all out for 158 in the 37th over with Jack Hogarth taking 5 for 59. Craig Wallace smashed Matthew Hurst for 32 off the first over as he motored towards an unbeaten century, Forfs winning by 10 wickets in only 16 overs.
Grange are one of the big boys of Scottish cricket but Falkland did their EPL status no harm by beating them on Saturday. Craig Cassell took 5 for 33 to help bowl out Grange for 223 and the overseas influence was complete when Harsha Cooray was not out for 61 to see them home with 8 balls to spare. Heriot’s had a comfortable win over RH Corstorphine to stay top of the league, and Carlton had a 2 wicket win over Stewarts Melville.
In Sunday’s Bon Accord Cup final a host of run outs didn’t do Siyapa any favours in trying to post a total. They made 104 thanks to 40 from Muhammad Hassan. In reply Josino Aluvathingal with 57 not out led Grampian to a 9 wicket win.
In the Reid Cup Final 2nd Siyapa batted first and scored 124 for 8 with Babar Kamal top scoring with 29. Lloyd Belton taking 3 for 17 for Crathie. In reply Crathie were bowled out for 105 to give Siyapa a 19 run victory with Belton adding to his wickets scoring 57 as Naveed Ul-Hassnan picked up 3 for 17.
