Forfarshire total surpassed in less than 16 overs

Not only has Strathmore and Perthshire NEC gone through round four without a match cancelled in the 20 league games played so far, Saturday produced a variety of results which had everything – big scores, class batting and bowling of the highest order.

On paper, match of the day looked like the clash between Stoneywood Dyce and Forfarshire 2nd but Peoples Park inDyce ain’t paper and a couple of cracking bowling performances for the home side ensured that, even if the players had missed the Scottish Cup Final, they were back in the pavilion in time to see Chelsea beat Manchester United.

Forfarshire batted first and reached 85 runs after occupying the crease for less than 18 overs, a short stay due to Jamie King taking 5-39 and, not to be outdone, David Kidd had 5-42.

S/D took less than 16 overs to pass the target, George Ninan having 50 of the 89, and it all proved pretty comfortable for S/D in the end. If that match provided the bowling highlights of the day, Dalnacraig was the venue for an absolute cracker of a game with some pretty exciting batting although, with Dundee HSFP sitting on 84-6 in 23 overs with a pretty useful ASI Gordonians attack in full cry, it didn’t look like that would turn out like that.

Then Tom McFarlane and Zahid Rasheed came together and, with McFarlane ending up with 50 and Rasheed 72 off 50 balls, the game took quite a turn as the Aberdonians now faced a target of 233 with the visitors Jay Bhalani and Mauzam Ali doing the damage with the ball.

This challenging total was the cue for a belter of an innings from Aman Arora who smashed a century off 114 balls and although Darren Milne took 3-61, Gordonians passed the target with two overs and one ball to spare.

It looked as though Arbroath United might get to decent total on the board at Lochlands when they reached 70-2 but in the face of some solid bowling from Falkland’s Ben Strachan (5-12) and Steven Meikle (3-34) only Jack Waller made any impression with a knock of 35.

With an unbeaten 43 by Matt Surry and overseas amateur Darren Pearce Falkland reached the target with eight wickets and 13 overs in hand.

At Doo’cot Park, another high-scoring game saw Mannofield reach a total of 202-9 only for Perth Doo’cot to pass that with five wickets and more than 10 overs to come.

At Victory Park, Strathmore struggled to get any real momentum into their innings against Meigle as they reached 154-7.

The home side got the total they needed in the 35th over, having lost five wickets but with Raju Gayashan smacking 70 it ended in a comfortable win for Meigle.