The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Wallace ton can’t stop Heriot’ s win
Craig Wallace’s latest batting heroics proved in vain for Forfarshire as Eastern Premier champions Heriot’s produced a remarkable run-chase to clinch victory at sunny Forthill on Saturday.
In a free-scoring encounter, Wallace blazed his way to a scintillating 107 from only 75 balls with eleven boundaries and six maximums.
His effort propelled ’Shire to a healthy 315-5 only for Heriot’s, inspired by Scotland star Mark Watt and their own centurion Michael Shean, to reach the lofty target with four wickets and one over to spare.
And Watt, who travelled north after playing for Derbyshire in the Vitality Blast on Friday evening, revealed conditions at the Broughty Ferry venue played into the visitors’ hands.
He said: “We were always confident of chasing such a big score when the wicket was so good and the outfield absolutely lightning. We’ve got a really strong batting line-up – we bat all the way down to No 11 – so the boys were confident about chasing 315 and we knew if we had wickets in hand going into the last 10 overs we could chase anything.”
In addition to Wallace’s century, Shire had good contributions from Jack O’Neill (87) and Callum Garden (74) but Watt kept Heriot’s in contention with three important wickets before getting the chase under way with 69.
Shean then took charge with a brilliant unbeaten 118 with fourteen boundaries and two sixes to get his side over the line.
Watt added: “Michael batted unbelievably – we’re just sad he’s leaving to move to London in a couple of weeks but he’s definitely making it count when he does play.”
Meanwhile, Falkland’s hopes of a second victory of the campaign were dashed by Watsonians who took the spoils by 77 runs at Scroggie Park.
Michael Carson’s hard-hitting 91 helped the visitors post 289-6 while Greg Chambers claimed three wickets for the Fifers.
A cautious start to the chase then proved costly as Falkland found themselves behind the required rate, eventually falling short despite skipper Lyle Robertson’s run-a-ball 50 and a sparkling 49 – including five maximums – from Charlie Casselll.
Robertson admitted: “It’s tough one to take.
“I think our fielding let us down. It was a flat deck so we had to take our catches to restrict them to a reasonable score.
“Greg bowled well again but otherwise we just bowled too many loose balls.
“We got off to a slow start with the bat when we should have been more aggressive, but overall we are still moving in the right direction.”
There was more disappointment for Arbroath who remain winless after going down by 86 runs to Grange at Lochlands.
Craig Ross was the leading home bowler with 3-49 while Jack Jarvis topscored with 79 in a Grange total of 266-8.
Several Arbroath batsmen made promising starts but Scotland U19 Jarvis claimed 3-22 as the innings petered out in the 43rd over.