Forfarshire a win away from the title

SPORTS

THE week of stormy weather resulted in all but one cricket game i n Scotla nd rained off.

And the only match to be played was between the Eastern Premier Division top and bottom sides Forfarshire and Aberdeenshire.

It ended with a Forfarshire win and the men from Forthill stand just one win away from winning the league.

After making the trip up north, Forfarshire were very surprised when they saw the condition of the ground.

It was a lot drier than expected and it was agreed play would start at 12.30 with no loss of overs.

The home side won the toss and put the visitors into bat.

This looked like a good decision when Forfarshire were 40-3 with Rory Johnston, Chris Greaves and Micheal Leask all out.

This brought Callum Garden to the crease to join Craig Wallace and the pair put on a well-made partnership of 95 under pressure.

Garden was the first to fall for a run a ball 45 including four sixes.

Forfarshire skipper Umair Mohammed then came in to give his side another 50 partnership with Scotland international Wallace before he fell for 25.

The home side then had Wallace and Scott Cameron out in quick succession with Wallace making a composed and extremely important 73.

Brock Ditchmen then made a quickfire 40 and Jack Hogarth provided a late flourish to finish on 37 not out and bring the Dundee side to 279-8.

Forfarshire t hen did what they have done so well all season and built pressure to continuously take wickets.

Bryce Alchin took two important ones up top and Scott Cameron bowled with good pace to get a wicket.

Jack Hogarth came on to complete a great display and take 5-45.

This was thanks to his ability to turn it both ways which the Aberdeenshire batsmen couldn’t cope with.

He took the big wicket of skipper Kenny Reid who made 48.

Christian Robertson and Ditchmen were the other bowlers used by Forfarshire and they both took one wicket to bowl the home side out for 139.

This means that one more win for Forfarshire will give them their first title since 1992.

Aberdeenshire now need everything to go in there favour if they are to stay up.

VIRAT Kohli’s century and four wickets from Bhuvneshwar Kumar helped India to a 59-run win over the West Indies in the second one-day international at Port of Spain.

Captain Kohli’s 120 led India to 279-7 i n their 50 overs, Shreyas Iyer adding 71, and shared a fourth-wicket stand of 125 as Carlos Brathwaite took 3-53. Rain reduced the target to 270 from 46 overs.

Chris Gayle passed Brian Lara’s West Indies record of 10,348 ODI runs but only progressed to 10,353 before he was trapped lbw by Bhuvneshwar Kumar for 11.

Jack Hogarth bowling during his five-wicket haul against Aberdeenshire.