Scorecard

Gordonians Cricket Club Gordonians 1st XI v Strathmore on Sat 29 Apr 2017 at 13.00
Gordonians Cricket Club Won by 4 wickets

Match report No surprise that it was cold at Countesswells for the first match of the season, and no surprise that having won the toss, Aman put Strathmore in to bat.
With a different ball being trialled in the match, Forbes opened the bowling and gave umpire Steve Scott some limbering up stretches, the ball going anywhere but straight. Himanshu was somewhat tidier at the other end, but both bowlers would have been encouraged by the carry and bounce, not your standard end of April pitch.
Whilst the ball occasionally zoomed past the edges of the Strathmore openers, they were both moving their feet well, and an early breakthrough was needed before they got too settled. In the 4th over Himanshu pitched one shorter and an attempted pull shot by Hewitson only connected well enough to end up in the gloves of Mayank. Not to be outdone, Forbes then pitched one slightly shorter and Stevenson gave Mayank another straight forward catch, the score 16 for 2.
Forbes resorted to a short run up to see if that would help control the movement he was getting, but with 12 wides having gone in to the scorebook off his first 5 overs, he took a break. Hamza paced out a long run up and was on the spot from the start, Gourlay mistiming a shot to mid on, where Aayush Das made a low catch look very easy. Matthew Simpson is highly rated by some, and proceeded to show why, defending well and scoring off anything loose. Stewart looked settled until Himanshu found the edge which was comfortably pouched by Rane at slip. Hamza then clean bowled Ellis for 3, and with the tail looming, Simpson tucked in to successive quality boundaries off Chamila. Having made it to 30, Simpson got the ball tied up in his feet from a Chamila delivery and Mayank whipped the bails off to give the square leg umpire a chance to raise his finger. From then on it was the Hamza show, as he rattled the stumps of Milton, Grant and Hewitson to claim 5 for 16 off his 9 overs. Das was brought in to the attack, and after a tidy first over, his chance to get amongst the wickets was denied by a direct hit from Chamila running out the final batsman, Strathmore all out in the 28th over for 84. Simpson was the only batsman to get in to double figures as 23 wides boosted the total.
Defending such a score was going to need some inspirational bowling.....or some inventive ways of getting out. Having batted so well last season, and having used up a full catalogue of various ways to get out in previous seasons, Debo added 'stumped off a spinner in the first over' to his collection. Arora hit a glorious boundary off Stewart, and Abrar followed suit off the first ball of the next over from Stevenson, but after that the bowlers held their own, and a miscued shot from Abrar was gobbled up by Hewitson at wide point.
Pushed up the order, Praful took his time to size up the bowling, whilst Arora caressed a couple of imperious drives back past the bowlers to show his class. It was a surprise when Arora feathered a Stewart delivery behind for 17, Gordonians 36 for 3, and Rane in for a prolonged period of defensive batting. A rare bad ball from Stevenson was clattered by Rane, but only as far as Colhoun, who took a textbook catch as every level 3 coach should. Himanshu batted very professionally before giving Ellis some catching practice, whilst Praful was going through a frustrating 34 ball period which only produced a single. Hamza was stumped off Hewitson and Praful top edged a dolly catch to slip, only to be reprieved as the ball was inexplicably grounded, Gourlay the luckless bowler.
Das and Forbes both padded up in case the wheels totally came off a lacklustre batting performance, but Praful and Mayank picked up the winning runs in the 30th over. It had taken Praful 87 minutes to score his unbeaten 26, and he will bat far better for far less runs in future.
From a Gordonians perspective, they will be hoping that this is their one bad game, and that a visit to MacDonalds on the way to St Andrews will kickstart their season next weekend.

Strathmore Batting
Player name RunsMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
2nb 23w 1b  
for 10 wickets
26
84 (27.1 overs)		     
C Stevenson ct  Forbes 6 21 16 37.50
Gary Hewitson ct  Saraswat 3 15 10 30.0
M Gourlay ct  Arshad 4 34 17 23.53
M Simpson st  Perera 30 74 50 3 60.0
M Stewart ct  Saraswat 3 19 16 18.75
J Ellis b  Arshad 3 14 15 20.0
N Milton b  Arshad 1 10 10.0
K Grant b  Arshad 1 4 25.00
C McDonald Run out  2 12 16.67
Graham Hewitson b  Arshad 0 3 0
J Colhoun Not Out  5 12 41.67

Gordonians Cricket Club Gordonians 1st XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Chris A R Zz_Forbes5.0025125.005.00
Himanshu Saraswat9.0025212.502.78
Hamza zz_Arshad9.021653.201.78
Chamila N Perera3.0013113.004.33
Aayush zz_Das1.10400.003.43

Gordonians Cricket Club Gordonians 1st XI Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
1nb 15w 2b 2lb 
for 6 wickets
20
85		        
Debojyoti zz_Barman st  Stevenson 2 1 5 40.0
Aman Arora ct  Stewart 17 33 27 3 62.96
Abrar (AB) Ahmed ct  Stewart 8 18 15 1 53.33
Praful Pant Not Out  26 87 82 2 31.71
Swapnil Rane ct  Stevenson 1 25 21 4.76 1
Himanshu Saraswat ct  Gourlay 5 26 18 27.78
Hamza zz_Arshad st  Hewitson 4 12 8 50.0
Mayank S Bhandari Not Out  2 8 4 50.0 2 1
Aayush zz_Das  
Chris A R Zz_Forbes  
Chamila N Perera   1

Strathmore Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
C Stevenson9.0321210.502.33
M Stewart9.0133216.503.67
M Gourlay6.0018118.003.00
Graham Hewitson5.51919.001.54

  • Umpire :
    STEVE SCOTT AND IAN RILEY
  • Scorer :
    PAUL GREY