Inverurie Cricket Club

Inverurie move clear of relegation zone with second successive win

Amongst the sunshine and showers at Allan Park, Inverurie CC moved clear of the relegation zone in the Aberdeenshire Cricket Association Grade 1 League with a victory over Cults 2nd XI CC to leapfrog their opponents in the table.

Skipper Norval won the toss, and elected to field, hoping that the damp wicket would offer some assistance to the opening bowlers. Moore, continuing his comeback to the team started with some good pace, and Morrison immediately found some movement which had Rohit out for a duck when he edged Morrison behind to a superb one handed leaping catch by Hadden in the slips. Vikram and Shiraz started to play their shots, but with most of them going aerially chances were sure to come. As expected, they did, but unfortunately they weren't taken with a succession of dropped catches allowing the pair to move the score on to 41 before Randall, having replaced Moore, had Shiraz caught behind by keeper Martin for 23. Gill didn't stay at the crease for long, as freeing his arms in his usual manner, he only managed to top edge behind to be well taken running backwards at gully for 2. Vikram continued his charmed life and along with Tanveer took the score to 72 when Tanveer edged Randall to another, more regulation, catch by Hadden in the slips. Morrison chipped in with another couple of wickets as the Cults innings started to peter out when Hadden finally trapped Vikram LBW for 41. MacDougall hit out with a flourish at the end, but lost his last two partners due to desperation run-outs, leaving Cults on 129 all out. In the battle for precious points, Cults achieved six of the 10 available for batting, Inverurie had all 10 for bowling.

With the sun coming out Inverurie started their innings with Hadden and Lloyd-Jones and both batsmen continued the approach taken in the last match with a steady partnership taking advantage of the bad balls. The partnership was worth 46 when Lloyd-Jones slipped when backing up a little too far and ended run out for 18. Hadden followed soon after, LBW to Shiraz for 21, leaving Norval and Martin to take the innings forward. Norval was threatening to finish the match in quick time, but after quickly reaching 14, his impatience got the better of him and he was caught at mid-off attempting to hit a better ball over the boundary. Martin took a more sensible approach and along with Coutts, still badly hampered by an ankle injury, kept the scoreboard moving at 4 an over, well ahead of the asking rate. Having made a 50 partnership, including some quick singles bravely taken on by Coutts, he holed out off Singh for 15. Bloice came to the crease with just 13 needed, and was prepared to get them in extras, with the Grades umpire being very harsh on anything slightly wide this was quite likely. Martin however, had other ideas, and with some more cleanly struck boundaries brought up the required runs, finishing on an excellently constructed 45 not out, Inverurie achieving the 130 runs off 32.5 overs.

With the win, Inverurie scooped all 30 points on offer, Cults only managed 10.

Cults 2nd XI 129 all out off 42.2 overs (Vikram 41, Shiraz 23, C. Morrison 3 for 37) – Inverurie 130 for 4 off 32.5 overs (N. Martin 45 not out, G. Hadden 21)

The match ball was donated by Jerry Bishop.

Inverurie's next fixture is away to Mannofield, who are 30 points ahead of Inverurie in the table and likely to be a tougher task than the last two matches have proved.

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