Mitch the Merciless Leads Portcullis to the Final.

Week Ten of the 2016 Grades Season saw Portcullis relieved of their recent League duties. This week was their long awaited Semi Final clash against Stonehaven.

The previous meeting between the two was just three weeks earlier out at Mineralwall Park. On a dank sodden day the two teams saw out a ding dong classic where 345 runs fell for the loss of 18 wickets, the culmination of which was a narrow five run win for Stonehaven. Although Portcullis were beaten that day, they did draw a lot of heart out of that game. As a result the City Centre Green Caps felt they had a good chance of turning the tables today.

With Skipper Dave Mitchell running late, it was left to Vice-captain Kannan Vijayakrishnan to toss the coin with Stonehaven skipper Callum Findlay. Kannan won the toss and put the visitors into bat. The weather forecast suggested rain later on in the afternoon and it was felt the best opportunity of obtaining a result would be to field first.

Skipper Mitchell just arrived in time to open the bowling although young starlet Ross McKenzie would be late due to work commitments. This meant that Mitch would share the new ball with Shovon Mostofa. For Stonehaven the pairing of J. Matthews and A. Gale would open the batting for Portcullis.

If Mitch was flustered in his attempts to get to the ground on time, it did not show. He immediately got into his groove bowling out a probing opening maiden over that had the opposite batsman playing and missing more than once. Mostofa too gave little away in his opening two overs and the early pressure built. He did bowl one loose full toss outside off stump that Gale merrily leant into driving it into the covers seemingly for four. That was until cover fielder Jake Dawson dived low stopping the ball in full flow. His piece of fielding excellence had made a certain four become a scrambled single. This action set the tone for the match. Runs were going to be hard to come by. One would have to fight to obtain them.

As a result pressure built on the Stonehaven openers and something had to give.

In the 5th over and with the score on 5 it duly did. Mitch trapping Matthews plumb lbw for 3. Stonehaven 5-1.

On seeing this Mostofa decided to get into the act as well. With new batsman B. Campbell joining Gale at the crease, Mostofa captured the wicket of Campbell with some intelligent bowling. His previous two balls were outside off stump to Campbell on a good length, encouraging Campbell to leave well alone as he played himself in. The third ball was off the same line and length, however Mostofa rolled his fingers over the ball. This made the ball cut back into the stumps leaving the unfortunate Campbell bemused as the ball took the top of off-stump. Stonehaven 6-2.

Overs five and six from Mitchell and Mostofa had produced wicket maidens. The seventh over would produce the same.

Mitchell, settling into a fine line and length was now getting the ball to lift on occasions as well. This was to do for Gale. Mitch’s fourth ball of the over had Gale draw arms with his bat to defend it. Alas the ball had a little extra lift and away movement. As a result Gale could only glance it towards gully where Gary Steward was on hand to take a fine catch over his head. Stonehaven 6-3.

As a result with all of this carnage around them, Stonehaven had two new batsmen at the crease, E. Matthews and Andy Hinchcliffe.

Initially a fightback was on the cards. Matthews crunching a drive back past Mostofa for a fine four whilst A. Hinchcliffe showing he was a fine batsman indeed opening his account with a fine pull shot through mid-wicket.

The score moved onto 15 when Portcullis struck again. This time Mostofa managed to get E. Matthews to top edge one. The ball looped with vicious spin upon between keeper and first slip. Thankfully Keeper Kannan Vijayakrishnan showed tremendous awareness and agility to readjust and take a fine one handed catch. First slip Ronnie Falconer maintaining (somewhat unconvincingly) that he had it covered just in case! Stonehaven 15-4.

Next man in was S.Jacobsen. He managed to make a boundary of his own and assist Hinchliffe to get the score onto 23. He would be Mitchell’s third wicket of the day. Mitch, still bowling his probing line and length, had Jacobsen mistime a drive towards the covers. A loud call by Jake Dawson followed by steady hands finished in a fine catch. Stonehaven 23-5.

On seeing wickets fall all around him, A. Hinchcliffe took it upon himself to take the attack to Portcullis. One Mitchell over went for 11 as Hinchcliffe showed he was a fine puller and cutter of a ball indeed!

This was not a problem as Mitchell had his tail up by this point. The next batsman in, Prothero, was to be Mitch’s next victim, trapped lbw. Stonehaven 39-6.

The next ball, to new batsman Ritching, had the fresh batsman err in his judgement. As a result he clipped the ball towards point where Ross McKenzie dashed in to take a simple catch. Stonehaven 39-7. Mitch with five wickets to his name.

With Mostofa tiring, it was time to introduce Ross McKenzie into the Portcullis bowling attack. For Stonehaven, G.Bonds joined A. Hinchcliffe at the crease. The score moved onto 45 when Stonehaven lost their 8th wicket of the match. It was that man Mitchell again, bowling Bonds with another super delivery.

A. Hinchcliffe was the next man to go. In McKenzie’s second over, he got Hinchcliffe to pull at one that was onto him a little quick. The result being a firm but misdirected pull went towards Dave Forbes whose solid hands and sound awareness made a difficult catch look standard. Stonehaven 51-9.

This left the pairing of Callum Findlay and Craig Hinchcliffe to guide Stonehaven to a challenging score.

It was not to be though as Mitchell wrapped up a magnificent bowling spell and Stonehaven’s innings somewhat poignantly when he got one to cut back into Craig Hinchcliffe taking the top of off and middle stumps.

Stonehaven 51 all out. For the batting side A. Hinchcliffe made 25. For Portcullis it was all about Skipper Dave Mitchell. He returned personal best bowling figures of 8.2 overs 3 maidens 18 runs for 7 wickets. A truly fantastic effort by the skipper giving Portcullis an excellent chance of reaching the Reid Cup Final. Shovon Mostofa pitched in with figures of 2-21 and Ross McKenzie took the other wicket with figures of 1-11.

With the first innings finishing quickly and with the weather looking decidedly dodgy, both teams agreed to have a quick turnaround. Tea could be taken when the match finished.

Portcullis would open their batting with Dave Mitchell and Dave Forbes whilst Stonehaven would open their bowling with Callum Findlay and Clive Hinchcliffe.

Honours were even over the first two overs, Forbes solidly seeing out Findlay’s initial foray with the ball whilst Mitchell plundered six from Hinchcliffe’s opening over.

It would be Stonehaven’s third over and Findlay’s second which would produce the first breakthrough of the Portcullis innings. Findlay bowled one slightly overpitched on leg stump. Forbes pounced on it and clipped it rather firmly towards the mid-wicket mid-on area. Unfortunately for Forbes, Stonehaven had placed a fielder close in for such a shot but that was half the job. The fielder, S. Jacobsen, was in very close, perhaps too close. That did not deter him though as his reactions did him proud as he thrust out an instinctive left hand to take an excellent catch. Portcullis 6-1.

This turn of events lead to Gary Steward to come to the crease. Along with Mitchell, Steward managed to quell the initial enthusiasm from the Stonehaven attack. This was no mean feat as both Findlay and Hinchcliffe bowled well. The pair showed a lot of imagination and guile as they probed to get the vital second wicket.

The score moved onto 17 when they did just that. It was Findlay’s fifth over that produced the second wicket and it was no more than he deserved.

Bowling wide of the wicket, Findlay was managing to bowl the ball towards the off stump whilst producing away seam & swing to jag the ball back to the stumps. This seemed to affect Mitchell’s concentration and this did for him. The last ball of this over appeared to be a similar delivery to the previous few. This one however kept going towards Mitchell although passing his off stump. Due to this Mitchell felt he had to play the ball and he did, chopping it onto his stumps. Portcullis 17-2.

To some this would have appeared to be bad luck. In fact this was a good probing over from Findlay that hoodwinked Mitchell into playing the ball and making his error.

It was a damn good piece of bowling!

Shovon Mostofa came out to join Steward at the crease. The pair played steadily as again they did not want one wicket becoming two. Despite fine deliveries from Findlay and Hinchcliffe, there were few scares although one of them is worth mentioning.

Mostofa, during one of Hinchcliffe’s overs decided to play a pre-empted shot, walking down towards Hinchcliffe as he ran in to deliver the ball. Hinchcliffe, on seeing this, pitched the ball short. As a result the ball rose towards Mostofa’s throat causing him to yelp as he defended the ball!

Big laughs all round!

Mostofa and Steward saw off the opening pair of Hinchcliffe and Findlay just as the clouds were looming in to Duthie Park. Signals from Portcullis skipper Dave Mitchell to speed things up were acknowledged. The new Stonehaven bowling pairing of J Matthews and G. Bonds were punished in their three overs they bowled between them as Portcullis knocked off the remaining runs.

Just in time before the rains fell.

This meant Portcullis won by eight wickets to book their third Cup Final appearance in the last five seasons. A fine achievement indeed!

Next up for Portcullis is a tricky way tie at Dunecht as the City Centre Green Caps go back to league business.

Stonehaven have the consolation of their 2nd XI booking their place in The Johnston Rose Bowl against AGSFP 3rds.

PORTCULLIS MAN OF THE MATCH.

For the second week in a row skipper DAVE MITCHELL takes the award. His opening bowling spell of 8.2 overs 3 maidens 18 runs for 7 wickets effectively decided the fate of this semi-final. These figures are Mitch’s personal best to date. A wonderful spell of bowling!

STONEHAVEN MAN OF THE MATCH.

ANDY HINCHCLIFFE just pipes Callum Findlay for the award. His knock of 25 gave Stonehaven something to bowl at. It was a fine knock and it took a fine Dave Forbes catch from the bowling of Ross McKenzie to dismiss him.

PORTCULLIS CATCH OF THE MATCH.

There were five fine catches for Portcullis this day but the best of them all was GARY STEWARD’S superb overhead catch at gully from a flier off the bat of Gale. This epitomised the fine fielding of Portcullis that day.

Tuesday, 05 July, 2016