Category Archives: 3rd XI Match Reports

Grammar FP’s 3rd XI to play Turriff at Harlaw was Ian Johnston, Sandeep Dhanamani, Kingshuk Ghosh, John Lord, James Lord, Rahul  Gopal, Agar Haider, Akil Thanga, Jason Alexander, John Thomson, a total of seven changes from the previous match.

There was a very strong wing blowing cross the wicket as the Turriff batsman walked out to bat, FP’s having won the toss. FP’s opening bowlers Thomson and Thanga both bowled well in the awkward conditions and the Turriff batsmen were unable to score a single boundary off the opening 10 overs, score 25 – 0. Thomson had bowled 5 – 3 – 2 – 0, accuracy personified while Thanga was very unlucky to also go wicketless in his 6 overs for 26, one over producing 2 Chinese cuts and a couple of difficult catches.

Schoolboys D’Costa and Alexander replaced the opener schoolboy Thanga and mature pupil Thomson but found the wind tricky at times. The first boundary came in the 15th over, but Alexander made the breakthrough in the 20th over when Thomson took a well judges catch at mid on to dismiss Lings for 38 (4 x 4), Turriff 67 – 1. Both bowlers were unlucky with LBW shouts and a couple of catches which just evaded the fielders. A combination of the strong cross wind and two left handed batsmen also a good test of their control.

Haider and Dhanamani came on to bowl and soon had to deal with a wet ball following a heavy shower which brought the teams off. Dhanamani took the second Turriff wicket thanks to a great reflex catch by Alexander at square leg who caught Chalmers one handed, Chalmers 27 (2 x 4), Turriff 129 – 2. Next ball Doss sliced a shot to mid wicket where D’Costa calmly took the catch, Turriff 129 – 3. Unfortunately Dhanamani was unable to emulate Mrs Dhanamani’s perfect delivery a couple of days earlier (a daughter, Madhu), and so the (possibly) once in a lifetime babies head wetting/hat trick was lost!

I. Smart was  hitting out whenever he could  and reached his 50 with a boundary. Turriff were looking to score quickly but Dhanamani found his own perfect delivery when he bowled D. Laing for 9 (1 x 4) Turriff 147 – 4 off 36 overs.

Smart was farming the bowling well and D. Laing  had contributed 5 runs to a stand of 39 when opening bowler Thanga finally took a well  deserved wicket, bowling Laing with a beauty, Turriff 186 – 5 off 41.5 overs.

New batsman F. Smart was too keen to keep his dad on strike and was run out backing up too far by a quick piece of thinking by Thomson who very calmly (too calmly for his teammates) took aim and threw down the stumps, 191 – 6. With the last ball of the 43rd over Thomson also took a well deserved wicket by bowling C. Duncan middle stump for 0.

Smart finished on a hard hit 73 n.o. (2 x 6, 8 x 4), Turriff totalling 191 – 7 off 43 overs.

Bowling figures for FP’s, Thomson 11-3-27-1, Thanga  8-0-35-1, D’Costa 6-0-27-0, Alexander 6-0-21-1, Haider 5-0-31-0, Dhanamani 7-0-45-3.

FP’s bowlers were troubled at times by the wind and wet ball but stuck to the task, having several good shouts for LBW, and were supported well in the field with Alexander again outstanding.

FP’s came out to bat with the wind even stronger then before and D. Laing took full advantage of the cross wind bowling from the Cromwell Road end. The first three huge inswinging deliveries were well kept out by John Lord, but the fourth ball saw Lord move too far across the line and he was bowled off his leg for a duck, FP’s 0-1. First ball of Laing’s next over saw Haider fatally go back and across his stumps and was given out LBW for 1, FP’s 5 – 2.

Kingshuk Ghosh and James Lord then dug in and played very mature cricket to get FP’s out of a potential heavy defeat, batting for 25 overs against good accurate bowling. Lord took full advantage of the first change of bowling when he played 3 majestic pull shots to the boundary off 4 balls in new bowler Doss’s first over, an excellent change from disciplined defence to attack.

The third wicket stand was eventually broken when Lord was bowled off his back foot by C. Duncan for 25 (5 x 4), FP’s 85 – 3 off 27.2 overs, the stand worth 80 runs.

Ghosh was again showing great concentration and determination and helped add a further 21 runs with Gopal  until being caught off opening bowler Lings for a well constructed innings of 34 (3 x 4), FP’s 106 – 4.

Turriff had recalled both opening bowlers in an attempt to break through, and it worked as both Dhanamani and Thanga were dismissed in quick succession without adding to the total of 107, FP’s 107 – 6 off 33 overs. This left 15 overs for FP’s to secure a draw, eight of which to be bowled by the openers.

But Gopal and schoolboy D’Costa batted with determination and survived nine overs until D’Costa was out to a good catch for 7, FP’s 124 – 7 off 41.4 overs.

Johnston joined Gopal in the middle and saw Gopal survive being bowled by I. Smart when the ball hit the off stump, but the bails instead off flying off, formed a pyramid over middle stump, with the ball flying off to the boundary for 4 runs. Gopal declined the advice given by one of the fielders to walk, but two balls later decided to play across a straight ball and was rightly given LBW for 18  (1 x 4), FP”s 134 – 8 off 45 overs.

Alexander and Johnston saw out the remaining overs, both 0 n.o. FP’s scoring 134 – 8 off 47 overs.

Top wicket takers for Turriff Laing 12-5-13-4, I. Smart 3-1-6-2.

FP’s were indebted to Ghosh and Lord for an excellent stand which at one stage might have given FP’s an outside chance of going for a victory. This was a good draw for FPs with everyone contributing and gaining valuable bowling and batting experience.

Man of the Match – Kingshuk again kept well and batted very well

Champagne Moment – Jason’s reflex catch

A cold wet Harlaw greeted the two teams, well the opposition and the six home players who were there by 12.50. It was a much changed side with Rutwig Hegde & Kingshuk Ghosh being promoted to the 2nd XI, Sandeep on paternity duty and captain Ian Johnston away on a well deserved break. Team was Lee, James Lord, Agar Haidar, Sara R, Naresh, Tamus Whyte, Paul Norwood, Chaitu N, Shri B, A Thanga & Arun K. Continue reading →

For the second week in a row, the temperature was due to be 8 deg (‘feels like 2 deg’), strong SE wind, but at least  this week, dry. The team selected for the FP’s 3rd XI expedition to Sheddocksley was Ian Johnston, Sandeep Dhanamani, Kingshuk Ghosh (wkt), James Lord, Rutwik Hegde, Rahul Gopal, Jason Alexander, Leston D’Costa, Akil Thanga, new man Agar Haida, John Thomson. Unfortunately, Sandeep phoned on Saturday morning to advise that his wife had gone into labour so with this being a very conservative club, he was promptly dropped. Continue reading →

The 2015 season began with a visit from Kemnay-Kintore 2nd XI at Harlaw. Unfortunately it also coincided with a visit from a strong north westerly wind which brought with it the first shower of the ‘summer’ timed to perfection with the first over of the match.

The toss had been won by FP’s who had decided to bowl first. The FP’s 3rd XI chosen was Ian Johnston (c), Sandeep Dhanamani (vc), Paul Norwood, Kingshuk Ghosh, Rutwik Hegde, John Youles, James Lord, Leston D’Costa, Jim Lee, John Thomson, Jason Alexander, a good balance of youth, athleticism, talent and vital experience required to supervise the tea.

Continue reading →

AGSFP’s 3^rd XI made five changes to the team from the previous match, Ian Johnston, Doug Russell, Shaun Mountain, Rahul Gopal and Rama Mantha were replaced by Shriram Balasumbramanian, Agha Haider, Arun Chidhambaram, Jeston D’Costa, Jim Lee and Melvin Joy. Remaining team members were Sandeep Dhanamani (C), Kingshuk Gosh (Wkt), Paul Norwood, James Lord, Bhanu Yalamanchili.

FP’s won the toss and elected to field first, the opening batsman for Ellon were C Watson and Middleton. FP’s opened the bowling with J D’Costa and S. Dhanamani. Both the opening bowlers started off well however from the 5^th over C Watson and Middleton started to hit the ball all over the ground. The rain did not help the bowlers keep to a tight line and length. At the end of 9^th over Ellon had reached 62 runs for no loss. B Yalamanchili was brought on to bowl, replacing S Dhanamani at this stage the rain had become heavier. Both teams agreed to stop the match for few minutes to see if the rain would stop.

After a 20 minute break, the rain stopped and field was inspected by the captains to see if it was in a playable condition. The pitch was fine however the outfield was slippery. FP’s asked Ellon if they would like to call off the game due to the outfield condition. Ellon advised that they were happy and keen to play on. The FP’s captain sportingly agreed to resume the game and only call it off if it started to rain heavily again.

B Yalamanchili continued his spell, and at the end of 12^th over Ellon reached 100 runs. FP’s tried all their bowling options, however C Watson and Middleton still managed to find the gaps. J Lord and A Chidhambaram replaced J D’Costa and B Yalamanchili.  Chidhambaram bowled a full toss delivery and Middleton completely missed the ball which hit the stumps, FP’s started to celebrate the fall of the long awaited wicket however the umpire from bowler’s end called that as a no ball. FP’s Captain explained to the umpire at the bowler’s that the square leg umpire had not called that delivery as a no ball. The umpire at the bowler’s decided not to change his decision even though the square leg umpire was sure that it was not a no ball. With disappointment FP’s continued to bowl.

M Joy and A Haider replaced J Lord and A Chidhambaram, both the bowlers started off with good line however the both the batsman were in good form at that stage. Ellon reached 200 runs without losing any wickets in 25 overs.

It was J D’Costa who took the first wicket for FP’s at the 32^nd over, D’Costa bowled a full length delivery, C Watson tried to hit it straight for a boundary but missed the ball which hit the stumps. C Watson was out for 125 runs.

Proctor was the next batsman to come and lost his wicket to P Norwood when he was on 8 runs, A Haider taking a good catch to dismiss Proctor. J Lord took the third wicket by getting Middleton bowled. Middleton played an excellent innings and scored 147 runs, and at that stage Ellon declared their innings. The target for FP’s 321.

P Norwood and J Lee opened the batting for FP’s the right and left hand combination worked well for FP’s. P Norwood hit some lofted shots which raced to the boundary. The opening partnership had reached to 54 runs when P Norwood was bowled by S. Herridge for 30.

K Gosh was the next batsman, scoring 2 quick boundaries but was out for 8 runs, S Herridge picked up K Ghosh’s wicket. J Lord scored 5 and was bowled by C Morris. M Joy played some good shots however was also bowled C Morris for 19 runs.

C Watson managed to get J Lee out LBW, J Lee opened the batting and played until 32^nd over scoring 45 runs. At this stage FP’s were 124 for 4, but unfortunately FP’s lost their last 6 wickets for 10 runs. Ellon bowled well to get the FP’s all out for 134, R Kennard and C Morris bowled well and claimed 3 wickets each.