Big game Sunday produced 4 nail biting and riveting cup tie encounters. At Countesswells in the Cricket Scotland Challenge Cup semi final, Gordonians won the toss and their decision to ask Dundee High to bat first paid an immediate dividend. Akhlaq Bashir bowled their opener first ball and repeated the delivery to take the big wicket of Brock Preston to leave Dundee High on 15 for 2. Noah Chapman had not gone past 21 in 13 previous knocks this season, but his 45 prevented a total collapse of the Dundee batting as they were bowled out for 117 in the 35th over. Akhlaq ended up with 2 for 19 and brother Ashfaq made a mess of the middle order with 3 for 11. The Gordonians reply didn’t get off to a good start as they slipped to 30 for 4, but young Adi Mukhopadhya steadied the ship with 43, although when he was out Gordonians were still in trouble at 81 for 7. Aman Arora is better than your average number 8 and he played a captain’s knock to manage the remainder of the run chase, unbeaten on 28 as Gordos sneaked home by 2 wickets. They meet Penicuik from ESCA division 1 in the final at Stenhousemuir on August 4th.
Holders Knight Riders must have been slightly nervous as they faced Master Blasters in the Aberdeenshire Cup semi final at Inverdee. Shoaib Laghari had resumed his Master Blasters Grade 1 career on the Saturday, retiring against Banchory having rattled up 205 off only 98 balls. Master Blasters batted first and huge Knight Riders celebrations ensued as Laghari was run out for 9. Abhinav Kache made 26 and Vijay Vijapur 37 as Blasters were all out for 122. Nikhil Chaudhari picked up 3 for 14 and Somu Kumarusamy showed the value of bowling stump to stump with 2 lbws in successive balls. The lbw theme continued when Knight Riders batted as their first 4 all fell lbw as they slumped to 35 for 4. An unbeaten 44 from Gautam Bhatia got the run chase back on track and Knight Riders won by 4 wickets to meet Bon Accord in the Final.
Huntly won the toss at the Bon Accord Cup final and sent favourites Grampian into bat. Grampian skipper Mynul Nadim was in great form with the bat as he made 64 off only 43 balls, but the late innings onslaught was stifled by Lucy Milne taking 4 wickets in 2 overs for only 9 runs as she was given the difficult task of bowling death overs 18 and 20. The Grampian total of 146 for 6 could have been better, but was certainly a challenging ask for the Huntly batters. Liam Ferguson and Darren Morrison got them off to a flying start, scoring 41 and 31 respectively, and Charlie Kennedy and Michael Clark kept up the pressure taking it to the 20th over with only 3 required to win and 8 wickets in hand. Bijil Jacob removed Clark with the first ball of the 20th over and must have sent the Huntly nerves jangling as he took a wicket with his next delivery. A single and 2 leg byes followed as Huntly won with one ball to spare, Kennedy player of the match for his undefeated 26.
PLAYER OF THE MATCH CHARLIE KENNEDY OF HUNTLY
ALL SMILES FROM THE HUNTLY TEAM WITH THE BON ACCORD CUP
EMILY HENDERSON BOWLING FOR HUNTLY
LIAM FERGUSON SACRIFICING STYLE FOR POWER
2nd Grampian won the toss in the Reid Cup final and chose to bat against Aberdeen Tigers. Anandakumar Harikumar topped the scoring with 33 in the Grampian total of 172, which was boosted by the Tigers conceding 40 extras including 10 penalty runs for a tardy over rate. With a big score to chase, the Tigers only had 34 on the board after 7 overs. 40 from Sayed Ahmed wasn’t enough as they were bowled out for 149 with player of the match Subin Sunny taking 4 for 20 off his 4 overs. 1
2ND GRAMPIAN SKIPPER VAI SASIDHARAN RECEIVES THE REID CUP FROM NESC CHAIR ROBIN TAYLOR
PLAYER OF THE MATCH SUBIN SUNNY OF 2ND GRAMPIAN
A HAPPY 2ND GRAMPIAN WITH THE REID CUP
REID CUP RUNNERS UP ABERDEEN TIGERS ON DEBUT SEASON IN THE GRADES