Banchory faced Aberdeen Tigers yesterday in a game that started late due to the absence of half of the visiting team and at times was so painfully slow that it made Test cricket look like a quick version of the sport.

Banchory continued with their trend for the season of batting first but the top order never really got going as the umpire (and author) was blamed for a series of poor shots, Last week’s centurion S Rotheram was given lbw to a ball that he felt was too high and he was quickly followed back to the sidelines by D Abbott who was extremely unlucky to be bowled by a ball that pitched at least a full set of stumps outside off-stump but found a crack a jagged in ferociously before hitting the bottom of his off-stump. M Nixon was the first of six batsmen to be caught, a statistic which on the face of it looks impressive but hides the fact that Aberdeen Tigers dropped chances numbering well into double figures. C Abbott was the second unhappy lbw victim this time convinced that the ball had done too much and was going down leg. SA Shirzad and D Brown both failed to reach double figures and Banchory were 88-6 and it looked as though both Banchory teams might be facing abbreviated games.

Everything changed with the introduction of I Momand. He started the same way he had the previous week with a series of forward defensive shots and confident leaves but he quickly showed he was there for one purpose only, hitting as many boundaries in as many different ways as he could. Straight drives, wide cuts, strong pull shots were all dispatched for 6 and Aberdeen Tigers were spending increasing amounts of time in the trees and bushes looking for their ball or hoping to find a way to hide from the punishment they were taking (and rueing the missed opportunity of dropping Momand on 30). Momand largely ignored the applause for his 50 as he continued on with deft shots to every corner of the ground. At the other end debutant J Khan was playing his role perfectly, scoring where he could and rotating the strike to make sure Momand had the bulk of the opportunities. Meanwhile Rotheram was making up for his lack of runs on the scoreboard by getting his exercise running from square leg to point as a result of a left hand - right hand batting partnership.

SA Shirzad tempted fate by telling Momand he was on 96 and then filming his next deliveries but Momand reached his century to loud applause. The run rate began to slow as Momand and Khan tired but still Momand powered on first passing Banchory’s previous record score of 140 before bringing up his 150 with another huge 6. Khan eventually fell to bring to an end a seventh wicket partnership of 177 and it seemed Momand didn’t want to bat with anyone else as he was caught a few balls later for 153. Unsurprisingly the remainder of the Banchory innings was an anticlimax with the final three wickets falling for just nine runs but Banchory’s afternoon was saved and Aberdeen Tigers had been set a target of 281.

The required run rate of 7 per over always looked challenging but things got worse for Aberdeen Tigers when S Abbott picked up the wicket of F Ahmed for a duck in the second over. Brown then bowled his replacement B Hossain the following over and the Tigers were 17-2. Extras started to come to the rescue though, some legitimately as emergency wicket keeper Nixon tried valiantly to keep byes to a minimum, others less so as wides were called for balls that bounced over the stumps or came off the batsman’s pads. Brown coped with the situation exactly as captain Rotheram had anticipated but he did manage to harness his anger to bowl S Das after S Abbott had picked up his second wicket as well.

The Tigers started to rebuild with their fifth wicket stand as their total crept up above a hundred, a situation which perplexed most of the Banchory players but wasn’t a surprise to anyone keeping an eye on the wide’s column. C Abbott had replaced his brother but Tiger’s captain Z Hussain seemed to have his measure and as Momand replaced Brown at one end C Matthews replaced C Abbott giving Banchory a chalk and cheese bowling attack. The pairing cleaned up the final six wickets between them though as Momand removed Hussain to another lbw decision that a batsman disagreed with, this time voiciferously to the umpire as he slowly and reluctantly made his way back to his teammates. Momand also bowled H Farooq and trapped F Wahid lbw for a duck. Matthews’ slower bowling saw N Ramisetty caught at cow corner and M Asfand play an unconventional shot which took the slowest possible route to first slip for another catch. The final wicket saw S Abbott drop a regulation catch at mid-off only to pick up the ball and fire it at the stumps at the non-strikers end for a run out that left the batsman well short of his crease.

Aberdeen Tigers managed a solitary losing bonus point as Banchory won by 135 runs.

Club records

Highest score 153 Ikram Momand

Highest 7th wicket partnership 177 Ikram Momand and Jamshid Khan