The result of the table topping clash between Bon Accord and Mannofield was pretty much settled in the first innings as Fazal Awan and MK Ahmed put on 171 for the first Bons wicket, Awan going on to yet another century. Andrew Hastie took 3 of the 6 wickets to fall as Bons piled up 314 in their 40 overs. Half centuries from Rutwik Hegde and Ken Yahathugoda helped Mannofield to a total of 227 for 9, but they dropped from 1st to 3rd place with Bons now top.
Master Blasters are back in 2nd spot, but it wasn’t plain sailing against Crescent. Shubham Sharma put up the most resistance for Crescent, but when he was run out for 63 Vijay Vijapur cleaned up the tail, his 4 for 17 ending the Crescent innings early on 154. The top 5 for Master Blasters only managed 20 runs between them, but an astonishing 46 wides and a middle order revival took Master Blasters to a 2 wicket win in the 32nd over.
The Knight Riders resurgence continued as Sanjay Vijandiran scored 82 of their 240 for 8 against Gordonians, although an unbeaten 37 from Uday Reddy shepherded the vital lower order contribution. Gordonians put on 64 for the first wicket, but a flurry of wickets left them on 70 for 4, and it needed 57 from Adi Mukhopadhya to take them to 213 and maximum batting points.
62 from George Hadden laid the platform for Jordan Thom to tee off with a rapid 85 off 48 balls for Inverurie. Chasing 267 for 8 was always going to be a big ask for Abergreen and when Muhammad Hassaan was run out for 56 Hadden tidied up the tail taking 3 for 27 to dismiss them for 209.
It was a last ball finale at Harlaw as Grampian set Cults a challenging 232 for 9, Jeby George making 51 and Shakhawat Hossain 48. Habib Safi and Shahzad Ahmad were left to pepper the boundary as Cults edged closer to the target, but it eventually boiled down to 6 to win and 4 to tie off the last ball, Mynul Madim holding his nerve to keep it down to 2 and a 2 run win for Grampian.
The AGSFPs march to the Grade 2 title saw them bowl out Ellon for 102 at Rubislaw, Andrew Ovenstone top scoring with 38 as Agha Haider picked up 3 for 19. Haider added another 51 runs to his average as Grammar won by 7 wickets.
It may have been a while since Andrew Petrie top scored in an innings, but his 27 was 2 more than his son Lewis as Huntly were bowled out for 124 by Fraserburgh. Leanne Broadley took 3 for 18 for the Broch and Nick Gray was undefeated on 46 as Fraserburgh won by 7 wickets.
14 balls in against Banchory and Portcullis were already 3 wickets down, but a guest starring appearance from Stuart Horne with 70 repaired the damage until Sam Rotheram took 4 for 24 to bring the innings to a close on 167 for 9. Opener Will George with an unbeaten 58 guided Banchory to a 5 wicket win in 28 overs.
2nd Knight Riders had a good day at Inverdee as Mohan Vallatharasu scored 79 and then Balaji Selvaraj only used up 32 balls as he smashed 88 of their 318 for 6. A half century from Nouman Khan gave Grampian hope but they lost their last 5 wickets for 8 runs to be all out on 222.
A man of the match performance from Tanweer Khan gave 2nd AberGreen an 18 run win against Methlick. Tanweer top scored with 42 as John Moore took 4 for 24 to bowl out AberGreen for 160. Adam Veersema scored 34 but Tanweer took 3 for 19 as the latter Methlick batters couldn’t find the acceleration button.
3rd Gordonians moved into 2nd spot in Grade 3 bowling out Stonehaven for 54 with Gaurav Singh taking 3 for 4 to spark the collapse and set up an 8 wicket win.
Dunecht overcame Crathie by 8 wickets as Mike Baldry put his former team to the sword with 6 for 16. The Crathie total of 104 might have been competitive, but Matt Witz with 62 wasn’t hanging around to find out.
Small margins can decide games, and so it was as 2nd Gordonians were bowled out for 237 by Stoneywood Dyce with 8 unused deliveries. Shahid Mir and Peter Morgan both made 50s for Gordos with Bruce Davidson taking 4 wickets for Stoneywood Dyce. The Stoneywood Dyce reply progressed until 11 runs were needed off the final over and Joe Slater looked to be taking them home, but when he was out for 70 the runs dried up and, not for the only time on Saturday, it was 6 to win and 4 to tie off the last ball. A leg side full toss was duly dispatched to the boundary by Kyle Swan and a tie it was. Stoneywood Dyce moved ahead of 2nd Gordonians in the table by scoring more bonus points.
Stoneywood Dyce 1sts won their first match of the Eastern Premier League season with a dramatic win at Meigle who now prop up the table. Du Preez Stander top scored for Stoneywood Dyce with 48 as they were bowled out in the 46th over for 156 with only 3 batters making it to double figures. What seemed a below par score quickly became a match winning effort as Meigle lost Hegde, Brits, Gayashan and Ejaz in the first 3 overs with the score stuck on 1. Pretty hard to come back from that, and Meigle didn’t, bowled out for 68 with Shaun Wolmarans taking 5 for 18 and Jon Grant 3 for 18.
Grange stay unbeaten at the top of the league after a big win over Heriot’s. Dylan Budge scored 55 of their 302 for 8 and he picked up 4 for 40 as Heriot’s were bowled out for 167.
Falkland moved further away from the relegation battle with an 8 run victory over Stewart’s Melville. It was fairly attritional stuff as Jack Henderson topped the scoring for Falkland with 52 out for their 204. The Stew Mel response took a while to get going, and when Patrick Ritchie (56) had one swing too many the batting got a bit too frantic. Stew Mel will be kicking themselves that they didn’t use the last 8 balls of their innings.
It was a similar story in the Watsonian v RH Corstorphine match as Michael Carson made 111 for Watsonian, the latter part of the innings being well controlled by Andrew Chalamers with an unbeaten 87 as they totalled 287 for 7 off their 50 overs. A century from George West put RHC in a strong position, but 238 for 5 turned into 276 all out and an 11 run defeat with overs still left.
In the other match Forfarshire won by 5 wickets as they chased down the Carlton total of 185.
The SPCU North East Championship is another week nearer to settling in the grasp of Arbroath. Kinloch were the ones to suffer on Saturday as Craig Ross took 6 for 4 to bowl them out for 69 and a comfortable 8 wicket win. They are the only unbeaten team with everyone else having lost at least 3 games.
Jay-Dee Oliver and Jack Mitchell both scored 54 as Huntly totalled an impressive 240 for 8 away to Freuchie. Only the Stonebridge brothers scored at more than a run a ball as Jordan Squire spun his way to 4 for 27 and helped dismiss Freuchie for 206.
95 from Josh Goodwin rescued an otherwise below par batting performance by Aberdeenshire as they were bowled out by Strathmore for 207 in the 36th over, Liam Sweeney again working his magic with 4 for 31. Shire had an ace up their sleeve with an unexpected appearance from Calum Howard who obviously hasn’t forgotten how to bowl as his 5 for 33 hastened the demise of Strathmore for 112. Huntly are narrowly ahead of Shire in second place in the table.
Bowlers were on top at Countesswells as Gordonians bowled out 2nd Forfarshire for 106, Fergus Duncan offering the most resistance with 44. The Gordonians reply looked in trouble at 40 for 5, but Adi Mehta made an untroubled 37 to guide Gordos to a 2 wicket victory with a 6 in the 21st over.
2nd Falkland batted out their overs against Perth Doocot making 151 for 4. Perth only needed 26 overs to overtake the target, but they may have lost more than the 4 wickets they did if Rehmat Khan hadn’t smashed 72 off 37 balls.
The weather was the winner of the Aberdeenshire Cup tie between Bon Accord and Master Blasters on Sunday. 23 not out from Bons number 11 Muhammad Arif had saved them from a precarious position as they were all out for 154. Ajay Narne was out for 49 as the Master Blasters reply was progressing nicely, but rain interrupted 5 overs before the rain calculator could kick in, and the teams will have to decide a winner in a bowl off.
The Grade 3 match between 2nd Mannofield and 2nd Methlick was also a weather victim, but the Reid Cup semi final at Balmoral between 3rd Gordonians and Crathie did reach a conclusion. Rhod McEwan top scored with 30 as Crathie struggled against some tight Gordos bowling and made 79 for 5 in their 20 overs. Gordos opener Adi Mukhopadhya has been in fine form this season and his 46 compensated for a few wobbles along the way as Gordos won by 4 wickets. They will play Stoneywood Dyce in the final.