The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Break in weather but gloom for Arbroath as batsmen falter
The weather relented in week six of the Strathmore and Perthshire NEC, and four out of the five scheduled fixtures ended with a result.
Among those results is one which Arbroath United will not look back on with much pleasure as they were thumped at Lochlands, going down by 174 runs to ASI Gordonians.
There was nothing much happening in the visitors’ inning as they tootled along to 78, then Abrar Ahmed and Hamanshu Saraswat came together and by the time Saraswat was stumped off Craig Ross’s bowling the score had reached 210, Ahmed having completed his century and Saraswat 86.
Chasing a total of 245, Arbroath surrendered to 71 all out with Sourav Singh the main man for the Aberdeen crew with 3-26.
Saraswat, Jay Bhalni and Pranav Saravanan also laid into the home batsmen and collected a couple of wickets each.
Only two Arbroath batsmen made double figures, with extras at 18 top scorer for the home side.
This is one Arbroath will want to put behind them in a hurry.
It was an equally comprehensive win for Meigle when they batted first against ion8Forfarshire 2nd.
However, as they struggled to an impressive 135 all out in 41 overs it looked as though an upset might just be on the cards. Raju Gayashan and Shahzeb Saeed came together when Meigle were 2 for 2 and they had 110 on the board when Saeed was run out.
Bryce Allchin was the man who kept the Meigle score within a catchable total with 5-18, but their batting performance was woeful as Iain Stewart cleaned up with 4-16.
No one carded double figures for Forfarshire and they were all back in the pavilion after 24 overs for only 54 runs.
There had been too much rain during the week for the Kinloch against Strathmore match to go ahead, with the outfield deemed unfit, but at Lochpark it looked as though Kinloch had given themselves a chance of getting their first league win of the season on the board when they found themselves chasing Strathmore’s very catchable total of 157.
Sadly for Kinloch their reply didn’t get into three figures as they scrambled to a disappointing 96 all out after 23 overs. That first league win is still eluding them.
It was as mightily closerun thing at Doocot Park when Perth Doo’cot batted first and posted a target of 165 for Dundee HSFP to aim at.
The visitors came nail-bitingly close and, with one over left, fell an agonising six runs short.
For Dundee, Masid Rasheed took four wickets, pro Rishi Upumal claimed three wickets and 56 runs and, chasing a gettable target, the game was there for the taking.
“We were in a good position needing 26 runs to win and six wickets in hand,” said Dundee skipper Darren Milne.
“It went downhill from there, though, and we collapsed in a game we could have won but threw away.”