BAD WEEKEND FOR BONS AS BLASTERS GO TOP

Double disappointment for Bon Accord this weekend as they lost on both days. They dropped to second place in Grade 1 as they lost by 3 wickets to Knight Riders and had a very off day with the bat as they were beaten by Crescent in the Aberdeenshire Cup quarter final.

Master Blasters top Grade 1 by 2 points as they beat Mannofield at Mannofield. Only 3 Master Blasters batters got past 7, but they did enough damage to score 197 for 8 off their 40 overs. Abhinav Kache made 50 and Jay Gajjar 59 as they went at 10 an over for the last 11 overs. 44 from Will Anderson kept Mannofield in contention and a quick 22 from Andrew Hastie took them within sight of the target, but Rahul Chandu ran out of partners before he could go for hero status as they were all out 15 runs short.

Crescent didn’t give any indication that they would perform on Sunday as Cults skittled them out for 41 at Allan Park. Ubaid Ullah took 4 for 17 as 21 wides secured a losing bonus point. Cults only needed 37 balls to win by 10 wickets.

Gordonians opened up a gap in 3rd place as they won by 134 runs against AberGreen. Gordos were reduced to 8 for 3 but that just brought together the Bashir brothers who both made half centuries, Ashfaq topping the scoring with 85 out of 234 for 9. Chamila Perera took 3 wickets as AberGreen lost regular wickets and were all out for 100.

Trevor Norval made his highest score of the season as he held the Inverurie innings together with 76. A quick cameo from Jordan Thom boosted the Inverurie total to 195 for 9 and Kunal Godbole picked up 5 for 31 as Grampian were dismissed for 111.

39 from Fazal Awan was the best that Bon Accord could muster as they were restricted to 154 for 9 by Knight Riders at Groats Road. Bijin Vijayaraj took 4 for 25 as the Bons batting sparkle was fading for the weekend. The bowlers did some repair work and Knight Riders were under the cosh at 85 for 7, but Uday Reddy with 40 and Vijayaraj with 20, put on an unbeaten partnership of 70 to win the game for Knight Riders.

AGSFPs bounced back to form with an 87 run win against Fraserburgh, but their score of 223 for 9 was largely thanks to 108 from Hasnain Javaid. Omar Rohani top scored with 52 for the Broch, but the Grammar bowlers were in control throughout, with Geoff Morrison waiting to clear up the tail with 2 for 3 to bowl them out for 136. Grammar extend their lead over Fraserburgh at the top of Grade 2.

Alistair Addy was the only Ellon batter to make double figures with 29 against 2nd Knight Riders as 9 man Ellon were all out for 79 with Ananth Subramaniam taking 3 for 9. 3 wickets apiece for Ben Webb and Jonathan Barrett threatened to claw victory from the jaws of defeat, but the last wicket partnership added 21 to give Knight Riders a squeaky one wicket win.

Nouman Khan was another of the day’s centurions, his 127 crucial in the 2nd Grampian total of 236 for 6 against 2nd AberGreen. The latter didn’t get going with the bat and were bowled out for 72. 

No Sam Rotheram, and Will George out for a duck, wasn’t exactly the start Banchory wanted, but Ben Wiles stepped up with his first century as they posted 205 for 6 against Huntly. Tayyab Khalid with 4 for 18 helped to dismiss Huntly for 122. 

Grade 3 had tantalisingly close finishes in 3 of the 4 games, the Gordonians derby being the only game with a relatively clear winner. Maahir Patel returned to bowling after an injury and removed the top 3 2nd Gordos for ducks to alter expectations. Shiv Chouksey scored a half century as they posted a below par 173 for 9. Shravan Aravind and Naman Maheshwari were both run out, but they had notched up 61 and 70 respectively to set up a 5 wicket win for 3rd Gordos.

Kanishka Desai took 4 for 30 for 2nd Master Blasters as they restricted Crathie to 158 for 9 at Balmoral. Having made it to 151 for 7, the Blasters looked like they had the game in the bag, but Jack Humphrey picked up 4 for 25 as the scoreboard pressure cranked up. Samuel Nishanth was run out for 70 as Crathie bowled them out for 156 with 3 balls remaining.

It was cautious stuff as 2nd Methlick kept Stonehaven down to 122 for 9 off their 40 overs, but the target looked very defendable as Nathan Macaulay-Dicks took 4 for 8 to leave Methlick in a bit of bother. Alasdair Smith used all his experience to manage the remaining run chase being 55 not out as they sneaked home by 1 wicket with 3 balls left.

Marcus Vila batted through the 40 overs for 2nd Mannofield against Stoneywood Dyce making 39 of their 116 for 9. The Stoneywood Dyce reply was unhurried and they won in the 40th over by 2 wickets.

The SPCU North East Championship had the mismatch of the day as Arbroath piled up 309 for 2 against 2nd Falkland with Jared Meiring 145 not out, surprisingly his first century of a run-laden season. Ryan Plomer took 5 for 7 as Falkland were skittled for 16, half of those being extras. 

Huntly stay in a distant 2nd spot behind Arbroath, but their 158 all out against Strathmore was largely thanks to 105 from Jay-Dee Oliver as Lance Trueman ran through the tail with 4 for 36. Irtaza Hussain did the bowling damage as Huntly won by 18 runs.

56 from Lewis Munro was the top score as Kinloch bowled out Aberdeenshire for 189. The Kinloch reply was in a strong position at 141 for 4 but they just couldn’t stop offering up catching practice with aerial shots and were all out for 179.

Gordonians travelled to Freuchie to face a side short of 1st team regulars due to a wedding. As Gordos worked their way towards a lengthy Freuchie tail the task was made easier when overseas player Jeandre Niemann was given lbw on 94, although the game was delayed for a few minutes as he was reinstated on the intervention of the square leg umpire. He added another 20 and the tail wagged as Freuchie made 225 for 8, Rudra Chouksey taking 3 for 14. Freuchie did well to reduce Gordos to 68 for 5, but half centuries from Adi Mehta and Mayank Bhandari eased them to a 3 wicket win in 42 overs.

A century for Joel Rush took Perth Doocot to 251 for 8 and they bowled out 2nd Forfarshire for 185 to stay in 3rd position ahead of Aberdeenshire and Gordonians.

In the Eastern Premier League Stoneywood Dyce had a great start against Carlton as they got Daniel Da Costa out to his first ball. Unfortunately for them, half centuries from Will Hardie and Gavin Murray hoisted Carlton to 239 for 7 in a rain reduced innings. The revised target of 261 would have been a stretch even in 50 overs, but a spirited 69 from Du Preez Stander was the main contribution as they gave it a very good go, being all out for 215 and securing vital bonus points. 

The Meigle misery continued as Anthony Dunford picked up 6 wickets for RH Corstorphine to bowl out Meigle for 112 with professional Raju Gayashan failing to get past his first ball, his 3rd duck in 4 league innings. Dishan Rane was 51 not out as RHC won by 7 wickets in quick time.

Andrew Appleton made an opening 67 as Stewart’s Melville struggled to 204 for 8 against Forfarshire, but this could have been worse if it hadn’t been for an unbeaten 43 from Connor Shorten who is edging towards all rounder status. Forfarshire will be having a long hard look in the mirror as they slumped from 128 for 2 to 187 all out, Dan Burgess taking 5 for 7 to drop Forfs from 2nd to 4th in the league. 

Watsonian lack oomph in their batting without Oli Hairs who has been in sparkling form for the Scotland T20 team. Grange bowled them out for 139 and won by 4 wickets to retain their healthy lead in the table.

Logan Briggs spun his way to 4 for 17 to keep Heriot’s to 207 for 7, but Falkland were bowled out for 133 in reply.

Crescent sprung a surprise in the Aberdeenshire Cup as they bowled out holders Bon Accord for 52 with Shubham Sharma taking 4 for 15. Nawaz Mirza topped the Bons scoring with 14 as the rest made single figures. Crescent made a very slow start to their innings and lost 4 wickets on the way to a victory that owed a lot to an unbeaten 29 from Rajeevan Sujaya who has been scoring heavily in other competitions this season.

Gordonians made it to the national under 14 finals day coming away with a 7 wicket win away to Dundee High on Monday evening. Prayuj Patel and Rudra Chouksey both retired in their 108 for 3. The finals day is scheduled for Aberdeen on 6th August.