Dundee HSFPs need to follow Rashid example

Into round seven of the Strathmore and Perthshire NEC and still not a match off out of 36.

Someone must have made a huge sacrifice to the weather gods – or we will pay for it in the latter part of the season.

No change at the top of the table with Stoneywood Dyce and Falkland still unbeaten.

But at the other end, Dundee HSFPs find Arbroath United narrowing the gap between the bottom two.

It looked like plain sailing for Stoneywood-Dyce when they had Dundee at 43 for eight but a whirlwind innings of 90 by Zahid Rashid consisting of eight 4s and seven 6s took them to 143. Given their opponents’ form, not a big target.

At 79 for 4 however, Stoneywood looked a touch shoogly but a win by three wickets sees them still joint top.

This week they face a Meigle side reeling from a shock defeat at the hands of Arbroath United. Meigle will have to regroup pretty quickly if they are going to take anything from the encounter at Victory Park.

Dundee HSFPs will have to get more of their batsmen putting runs on the board if they are going to trouble joint leaders Falkland when they travel to Scroggie Park.

However, with Ben Strachan again a big part of Falkland’s win against Perth Doo’cot, smacking 56 runs and taking three for 21 with plenty of firepower behind him, it will be a big ask for the Dalnacraig men.

In the Aberdeen derby, ASI Aberdeenshire face Mannofield having well and truly put their miserable start to the season behind them with three wins on the bounce after a comfortable sevenwicket win over Strathmore last week.

Mannofield, though, did manage their second win of the campaign with that close-run thing against Forfarshire 2nds last week.

At Doo’cot park it will be interesting to see if Arbroath United can build on their first season’s win last week.

Ryan Cameron’s 70 and some solid bowling by Chris Robb and Ben Plomer saw them clinch a convincing five-wicket win over Meigle while Perth have to dig up some momentum from somewhere after an 86-run loss to Falkland.

Forfarshire 2nds came close to making it four wins from five starts against Mannofield and if they can pull out another 200-plus total at home against Strathmore then the visitors could be in trouble with only two wins from six league starts.