No surprises as top sides get victories

There were no shocks in round seven of the Strathmore and Perthshire NEC.

Falkland challenged Dundee HSFP with a target of 250-5 in which they used all their 45 overs. Dundee never quite got the momentum going to reach their target and ended 191-8.

Harsha Nawalage’s unbeaten 122, with Adam Ferguson with him at the end with 46, put Falkland in a handy position but Dundee’s reply was looking steady with Sami Ejaz collecting 51, Muhammed Ahmed 38 and Hayden Evans 31.

Big hitter Zahid Rashid was just getting into his stride with two fours and two sixes in his 23 when he was caught by Grant Doig off Ben Strachan so from 125-6, Dundee didn’t get back.

Meigle could have been expected to give joint leaders Stoneywood Dyce a real go of it but it took them 35 overs to amass a paltry 69 with Jamie King leading the way with the ball for S/D taking 4-14.

Jan Stander hit 33 as the home side raced to 73-2.

Tyler Riddle led the way for Perth Doo’cot with 38 in their total of 168 against Arbroath United and again had a fair hand in the home side’s win, claiming 3-38 as Arbroath could glean only 128 in less than 40 overs.

The visitors had contained the Perth batsmen pretty well with Paul Stewart taking 4-44 and right arm medium pacer Megan McColl claiming 3-29 but only Greig Peal’s 40 had any real impact on the Perth bowling.

Nearly all the ASI Gordonians batsmen got in on the act led by Maynank Bhandari’s 26 and Aman Arora’s 25 as they posted a target of 217 for Mannofield.

Jason Haddon was the only one of the visiting batsmen to get to grips with Gordonians’ bowling with a swift 68 but Mussain Ali led the way to Gordonians’ fourth win in a row with an excellent 4-7, taking them to a very comfortable 74 run win and fourth spot in the table.

It took Forfarshire 2nd just over 37 overs to catch the target of 168 set by Strathmore but there was very little support for the visitors: Muhammed Shoaib and Michael Shum with 68 and 30 with the bulk of the runs as Samir Hill pitched for ’Shire, taking 3-28.

With a rattling 77 and an unbeaten 55, Graeme Garden and Will Hardie set about the Strathmore bowling and they had eight overs left in the bank as they passed the Strathmore total to win by eight wickets, keeping themselves in third place in the table.