Inverurie Cricket Club defeat Aberdeen team
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Inverurie Cricket Club travelled into The Links Aberdeen on Saturday to play the newly formed Crescent 2nd XI following the club’s 1st XI moving to the Strathmore and Perth Cricket Union.
Inverurie won the toss and had no hesitation batting on an artificial surface which offers little to no help to the bowler.
With openers George Hadden and Trevor Norval at the crease the first few overs were navigated with little alarm until Norval unnecessarily drove on the up to mid-off to depart for 15 with the score on 25, this brought Chris Watson to the crease to join Hadden for the next 20 overs.
It was Watson who unsurprisingly dominated the partnership as Hadden willingly took singles to give him as much of the strike as possible to great effect as he found the boundaries at regular intervals as the run rate was a consistent 5/6 per over.
When Hadden (29) was caught at long on, trying to push the run rate on from both ends, quickly followed by Fraser Lawrance (1) it was necessary the good foundations set were not undone, and Mark Strachan was up to the task as he quickly scored a run a ball 25 in a partnership worth 42 moving the total onto 182 for 4 off 32 overs.
The last 8 overs were all about whether Watson could get to his 100 ably supported by Ritesh Kola (9) and Stuart Murrison (13*) however on this occasion it was not to be as a combination of fatigue and reduced strike meant a tired looking shot spun out to backward point for the catch ending an excellent innings of 95.
Shortly after Inverurie’s innings closed on 234 for 6 which looked to be a par score with the bowling of Dave Gibson (3-43) worth mention as he entered the attack. Inverurie tried to increase the innings run rate only for tight bowling to restrict them to 5 runs an over when they were trying to push upwards of 7/8 an over.
With the new team came its limitations as the new captain tried to perhaps find his feet assisted by others in the Crescent team which perhaps goes some way to mitigate the lengthy three plus hours innings however, as the team gains more game experience the necessary field tinkering will reduce, and innings times will be better controlled and reduce.
Following the return of the shared tea break where both teams shared not only the excellent spread on offer but also conversation – a welcome return to a fine tradition of the game in Inverurie’s opinion – it was time for Inverurie to take the field with the opening attack of Fraser Lawrance and Shaj Manohar.
With bowlers in short supply it was a tactic to try and slip in bowlers for quick 2 over spells and rotate the bowlers to get through the 40 overs.
As it turned out those tactics went out the window as, despite Manohars difficulty in producing 6 balls of regular consistency, while he worked in tandem with his bowling partners the run rate and trickle of wickets saw him complete his 8 overs in one spell for a return of 1 wicket for 36.
Included in this was 14 wides which can be worked on at nets but allowed the Inverurie captain to retain control of the innings and hold back his more experienced bowlers to bowl the "death overs".
At the other end Lawrence (3-23) was able to pick up the wicket of opener Quraishi LBW followed quickly by Sharma run out after good work from Norval at cover ensuring no fast start from Crescent was possible.
The change bowling of Mark Strachan and John Jessiman would prove age is no barrier to Grades cricket as Strachan (0-32) bowled his 8 over spell without luck in the wickets department but with real control.
Jessiman (3-34) at the other end would provide perhaps the moment of the match, if not the season (already), with a caught and bowled belaying his 79 years when a ball drilled back at him 6 inches off the ground and 2 feet to his right was caught one handed in a diving fashion – quite honestly unbelievable, in times when exaggerations are thrown about like confetti this is not one of those times.
With the back of Crescents innings broken it was now just a matter of whether Inverurie could prise out the last few wickets before the 40 over, however, Crescent gamely saw off the closing overs from the returning Lawrance and Hadden (1-34) for the loss of only 2 more wickets as the innings closed on 156 for 9.
It was an important win for Inverurie as they look to retain their Grade 1 status despite the difficulties of player availability and age being against them.
However, if the bowlers can bowl to specific plans and stick to an offside line to negate the leg side wide rule hopefully another season can be navigated while the old guard wait for the current crop of Thursday night juniors to come through the system and hopefully replace/compliment them.
Next weekend see’s Inverurie at home to Bon Accord with a 1pm start.
Scorecard:
Inverurie CC 234-6
C Watson 95
G Hadden 29
M Strachan 25
D Gibson 3-43
S Quirashi 1-13
P Boni 1-20
Crescent CC 2nd XI 156-9
S Quirashi 32
Z Rabbani 30*
A Sharma 26
J Jessiman 3-30
F Lawrance 3-23
