FIZZ GOES OUT OF GOOD DAY FOR KOLA AT INVERURIE

No Fazal Awan in the Bon Accord line up in Grade 1 on Saturday, but Shakeel Ahmed partially filled his boots with an opening 83. Malik added 34 with a rare appearance at number 3, and others made contributions to take Bons to 304 for 9 against AberGreen, for whom Muhammad Shahid took 3 for 59. Salman Bedaar with 76, registered his 4th half century of the season, but AberGreen were bowled out for a very respectable 244.

Gordonians had a good day at Mannofield. Rohit Bhide scored 77 but it was a 38 ball 83 from Sree Devadas that hoisted Gordos to 294 for 9. Nobody scored more than 20 in the Mannofield reply, but the spirit of cricket award for the day goes to young Ethan Shedbal who didn’t hang around for an lbw decision to be given, being the last batter out with the total on 99.

The Grampian v Crescent game was reduced to test match speed with the battery for the live scoring tablet running out before the end of the game. Rohin Joseph top scored for Grampian with an unbeaten 91 from their 232 for 9. In reply, Crescent were all out for 203, thanks in part to 52 wides.

Somu Kumarasamy picked up 3 for 25 as Knight Riders made life difficult for Master Blasters, bowling them out for 149, although it did need 51 from Vijay Vijapur to get the score that high. Knight Riders put on 43 for the first wicket but it was downhill from there as Ajay Narne took 5 for 15 to bowl them out for 114.

An understrength Inverurie side totalled 195 for 6 against Cults with Ritesh Kola making 73 to register his highest score for many a year. The Cults reply got off to a flier as they had 54 on the board in the 5th over before the game came to an unexpected halt.

Grade 2 leaders AGSFPs suffered a surprise defeat at the hands of Portcullis. At 110 for 6 it wasn’t the usual dominant Grammar batting performance but then the Karan Anand show rolled into town and a quick unbeaten century put a whole new complexion on things. 226 for 8 looked plenty, and with Portcullis reduced to 107 for 6 the result looked cut and dried. Ross McKenzie doubled his entire 2022 run tally with 28 not out, but the fireworks were at the other end as Aman Sood matched the unbeaten century of Anand to give Portcullis a 4 wicket win. 

Methlick had a batting day to forget as nobody made it into double figures. You know it isn’t your day when even extras don’t make a worthwhile contribution, and Daniel Brown and Tayyab Khalid took 3 cheap wickets each to bowl out Methlick for 33. Tom Acton did take 3 Banchory wickets but Methlick lost by 6 wickets in the 12th over.

Ellon dropped to 9th spot in Grade 2 after defeat to 2nd Knight Riders. Nikhil Chaudhari took 3 for 18 to blunt a good start by the Ellon batters although their total of 183 still looked defendable. 40 from Ambrose John was the main contribution as 2nd Knight Riders won by 3 wickets with 4 overs in hand.

2nd AberGreen and Huntly warmed up for their Sunday Bon Accord Cup semi final with a league match on Saturday. Congratulations to young Lewis Myron-Petrie on batting through the whole 40 overs, his 76 helping Huntly to 182 for 7. Awaes Amjad made a quick 59 to keep AberGreen up with the run rate, but when he was out the momentum was lost and they were all out for 152. 2nd AberGreen did win the cup tie on Sunday and will meet AGSFPs in the final.

It wasn’t high octane cricket at Fraserburgh as 2nd Grampian visited, but hard graft by the batters still has its place in the game. An unbeaten 34 from Liam Bowie was surprisingly his first double figure innings of the season and the highest score out of the Fraserburgh total of 112 for 9. Vai Sasidharan made 36 in the paced Grampian response, but Fraserburgh kept chipping away with wickets, and too many single figure scores eventually led to Grampian being bowled out 6 runs short with 3 overs in hand.

The Grade 3 top of the table clash between 2nd Master Blasters and 3rd Gordonians was the disappointment of the day. 5 run outs contributed to the self-inflicted demise of the Gordos batting as they were all out in the 27th over for 64. Master Blasters only needed 11 overs to complete a 10 wicket rout.

Henry Hamilton topped the scoring for 2nd Mannofield with 38 as they were bowled out by Dunecht for 90. An unbeaten 44 from Raza Ahmed took Dunecht to an easy 8 wicket win.

A total of 229 is a very good effort at Duthie Park and Stonehaven duly recorded an 81 run win over Stoneywood Dyce.

Shahmir Naseer extended his lead at the top of the Grade 3 wicket takers with 3 for 16 to bowl out 2nd Methlick for 102. 27 from Crathie opener Peter Cunningham set them on the way to victory, but credit to the Methlick bowlers who whittled their way through 8 of the Crathie batters until a wide ended matters before they could put pressure on the Crathie tail enders who both averaged less than 1.

In the SPCU North East Championship Huntly looked in trouble against Aberdeenshire as they lost their best 3 batters with the score at 69 for 4. Frank Summers may have a slightly older head on slightly older shoulders these days, but he knows how to manage a recovery, and his 40 took them to 186 for 9. Findlay Anderson picked up 4 for 38 for Shire. Four of the Shire top 5 were out lbw and Jack Mitchell took 4 for 20 to bowl out Shire for 83.

54 from Abrar Ahmed and 63 from Mayank Bhandari helped Gordonians post 214 for 9 at Arbroath. An unbeaten century from Ross McLean and another half century from Jared Meiring gave Arbroath another convincing win, Huntly moving into a relatively distant 2nd place. 

Falkland continued their losing streak as they were bowled out for 121 by 2nd Forfarshire. They took 2 wickets as Forfs cruised to victory in the 19th over.

The first 5 wickets to fall for Kinloch against Freuchie were all ducks, and whilst they batted out the 45 overs, they only scored 6 boundaries in their 117. Freuchie won by 7 wickets. Perth Doocot were bowled out for 154 by Strathmore who won by 5 wickets.

In the Eastern Premier League Stoneywood Dyce got off to an encouraging start as they removed the Grange openers quickly, but this allowed Thomas Foulds and Finlay McCreath to show they aren’t just swashbuckling batters with a grasp of sweeps and ramp shots. McCreath made 46 and Foulds 98, but Gordon Goudie had the umpire doing his very own mexican wave as a barrage of big hits had the umpire signalling sixes regularly. His 73 put the icing on an excellent comeback as Grange made 257 for 9, with Shaun Wolmarans taking 4 for 25. Rizwan Dharani took 5 for 22 as Stoneywood Dyce were bowled out for 83, and if you like your unusual stats, Sai Kumar was out lbw for the 6th time in 11 EPL matches having only been lbw once in 2022 in a Grade 3 cup tie.

Oli Hairs made a rapid 69 against Meigle to give Watsonian a great start, but the Meigle bowlers kept plugging away and bowled their opponents out for 216. With the overseas duo of Brits and Gayashan only making 10 between them, it was an uphill struggle for the other Meigle batters, Sami Ejaz top scoring with 43 as Meigle were dismissed for 151.

The Carlton v Heriot’s match was a low scoring nail biter. Hayes Van Der Berg top scored for Heriot’s with 25 and Fraser Proud picked up a duck as his below par season with the bat continued. Heriot’s total of 95 wouldn’t have had Carlton quaking in their cricket shoes, but knees would have been knocking as wickets fell regularly and the last pair for Carlton faced 17 balls to get the 6 runs they required to pull off the win.

Rain intervened in the RH Corstorphine v Stewart’s Melville and Falkland v Forfarshire matches before DLS could be used to calculate results.

The regional CS T20 finals day at Arbroath was won by Forfarshire, with runners up Falkland also progressing to the national finals day at Stirling on 6th August. Both teams beat Aberdeenshire who couldn’t pepper the boundaries enough to win games that were cut to 15 overs a side due to early rain.