THIS was another one for the Kintore scrap book of pain after an inspired performance in the field was squandered by a misfiring batting display in this Grade One match.
It looked ominous early on as Awan and Meres put on 40 without loss with the
former in no difficulties as he found the boundary eight times. Maxfield broke through when Meres was caught in the covers but it was the two spinners Satyamuurthy and Anderson who did all the damage.
First Satya had the dangerous Mirza lbw and then Awan had a rush of blood, attempting the switch hit to Anderson and getting it all wrong. Kintore were now right in the game and the Bon-Accord innings folded from 113 for 3 to 124 all out with Anderson claiming 5 for 20 and Satya 3 for 39 from 12 unchanged overs against all the top order batsmen.
The Kintore reply got off to a bad start with both openers going early but Satya and Middleton settled and started to play some strokes.
The Bon-Accord chatter level bordered on the ridiculous with the slips continually wandering up between deliveries to accost the batsmen and a ball which didn't generate an appeal was as unusual as an MP with a blank expenses account.
Malik was the main man for Bons taking the first four wickets to fall and at 30 for 4 the Links men were on top. A 65 run partnership between Laird and Prosser should have been the decisive phase of the game but Malik returned to strike for a fifth time with Kintore still 29 runs short.
Laird was the benificiary of numerous taunts from new fast bowler Vijay Reddy but he silenced him with a colossal straight six and then responded to some helpful coaching from Awan by offering to show him how to play the reverse slog-sweep.
It was the eighth bowler used, Jay Bhalani, who really made the difference, however, as he came on and bowled Laird for 62.
The target was tantalisingly close but the lower order were blown away by Luqman and Bhalani and when the last wicket fell Kintore were an agonising five runs short.
Bon-Accord 124 all out. F Awan 54; R Dhiman 22. D Anderson 5 for 20; G Satyamuurthy 3 for 39.
Kintore 119 all out. C Laird 62; G Prosser 13. T Malik 5 for 22; M Luqman 3 for 9.
