Banchory captain, Sam Rotheram, is known to advocate for ‘bat first’ regardless of the conditions but there were few complaints from his teammates yesterday with Banchory’s bowlers quite happy watching from the boundary as the batsmen went to work in the mid-afternoon sun.

Both Rotheram and fellow opener C Counsell started nicely, rotating the strike and taking advantage of a very quick outfield by putting any wayward balls away for boundaries. Just as Counsell was looking set however he decided to offer Portcullis some catching practice cutting a ball straight to point who juggled it but held on for the first wicket. D Abbott was slightly fortunate to see a top edge race past the wicket keeper for four but Azhakath got his revenge by finding Abbott’s leg stump shortly after.

That brought debutant I Momand to the crease. He saw out the over with a series of defensive shots but even these were enough for Rotheram to happily announce ‘he can bat’. As his confidence grew he showed he’s happier scoring in boundaries than singles and his scoring seemed to give Rotheram a quick breather in the middle of what was becoming an excellent innings. Momand was bowled by Vijayakrishnan who also got the wicket of C Abbott who had added a quick 13.

It was then SA Shirzad’s turn for his debut innings and his unusual batting style caused problems for the Portcullis bowlers. They tried to take advantage of how deep in his crease he started but his attacking style was effective and Banchory had added 32 runs before he was bowled by Burr. D Brown was extremely unlucky to be bowled by a ball that looked to have just whispered at the bails as it went past but whatever it had said on the way was enough to convince one bail to fall to the ground. Burr then picked up his third wicket in a very tidy second spell, trapping L Hendriksen lbw for just four.

S Abbott clubbed a couple of nice boundaries before Rotheram brought up his century, a moment that was applauded by all at the boundary and the opposition. Abbott holed out looking for another boundary and Rotheram eventually fell after having hit the first two balls of an over for six. It was clear to everyone that he only had one thought in mind after that, ‘I could get six of these here…’, but instead he chopped on next ball for a score of 121. Banchory finished their innings on 237 all out.

S Abbott and M Addinal opened the bowling for Banchory and initially the Portcullis opening batsmen frustrated them with a series of late cuts racing to the boundary between point and the slips. The bowlers were doing nothing wrong though and eventually the rewards came. Abbott’s fantastic inswingers found their mark and O Thorpe was sent back to the boundary for 27 before being quickly followed by J Brandsma for just 4. Addinal also claimed Azhakath lbw for the same score, a decision that the batsman was incredibly upset at the fielding team for, although strangely none of the blame seemed to be directed at the choice of shot or the umpire’s decision.

I Momand was then brought on to bowl and all those who had seen him at nets last week were looking forward to what he might do. His first ball was wayward and called wide but the speed of the delivery still managed to leave both Counsell at wicket keeper and Rotheram at first slip lying flat out on the ground. His accuracy improved almost immediately and he got Panchal lbw for a duck for his first wicket for the club. Brown, bowling from the other end, had no luck at all, but middle order wickets aren’t really his thing and the only batsman to fall was Philip who was run out by some tidy fielding and quick thinking by Shirzad.

Portcullis were already well below the required run rate and the game was quickly getting away from them. Shirzad came on to bowl himself and he picked up his first wicket for Banchory by doing it all himself and catching a delivery that was chipped back to the bowler by Godse before getting his second by bowling Burr for a duck. The final bowling change saw two extremes with Matthews’ slow-medium pace and C Abbott’s fast bowling that would normally be more at home opening the bowling than being the seventh bowler of the innings. Between them they finished the game with Abbott drawing an edge that flew straight to first slip and was nicely held by Rotheram and Matthews getting Forbes caught and bowled before ending the impressive innings of Vijayakrishnan who found S Abbott at deep mid-off for 52. Portcullis managed 149 in response as Banchory won by 88 runs.

Next week Banchory 1st XI are again at home as they welcome newly promoted Aberdeen Tigers to Burnett Park.