Slick Siyapa see off Portcullis.

Portcullis’s last league game of the season saw them take the short journey to Sheddocksley playing fields to take on one time promotion hopefuls Siyapa CC.

The previous meeting between the two saw Portcullis somewhat surprisingly come out as winners by 42 runs at Duthie Park back in June. Siyapa, on their home turf, would be seeking to reverse the result second time around.

With Dave Mitchell posted missing, Kannan Vijayakrishnan on vacation and Ronnie Falconer injured; Portcullis had to look outside the usual chain of command to find a Captain for the day. The choice was easy and unanimous though, Gary Steward donning the skipper’s armband for the first time for Portcullis.

Siyapa’s skipper was to be ex- Portcullisian Salman Bedaar, and it was he to call correctly and invite Portcullis to bat first.

Opening the batting for Portcullis would be their returning Viking (of sorts) Dave Forbes. Sharing opening duties with the hairy one would be in-form Richard Collinson. With the new cherry for Siyapa would be skipper Bedaar and Asif Yousef.

The Sheddocksley wicket was showing it still sported the odd level of variable bounce. Combined with a rather lush outfield scoring was going to be hard to come by.

With scoring difficult from the bat, Siyapa rather out of character aided the Portcullis innings with a few loose deliveries. The scorer’s extras columns of wides, no balls, byes and leg byes were soon all sporting tally numbers. One delivery just missed a fielder’s helmet, placed behind the wicketkeeper which would have incurred five penalty runs and given Portcullis the full set.

Forbes and Collinson saw off the opening pair of Bedaar and Yousef taking the score onto 20. It was the introduction of regular opening bowler Shahid that saw the first wicket fall.

In his second over Shahid pitched a good length ball on middle and off and got it to seam away and lift beautifully to catch the top of off-stump. Portcullis 19/1.

This brought about the arrival of Steward to the crease to join Collinson. The score moved onto 29 before Shahid struck again. This time he breached the defences of Collinson to claim his and Siyapa’s second wicket bowling the bewildered Collinson.

Shovon Mostofa joined skipper Steward at the crease. Mostofa, surviving an early lbw call, soon settled down and, along with Steward began to mount the runs up for Portcullis.

Steward despite the whispering grass managed to penetrate the boundary. It seemed a greater achievement to breach the boundary rope through the everglades on this occasion for a four than it was to go the aerial route for a six.

But Steward did both though, scoring a four and a six. With Mostofa the third wicket partnership went to 52 before Siyapa struck again.

And this wicket fell to something spectacular!

The bowling return of Salman Bedaar instigated the following passage of play. The third ball of his second over on his second spell was a juicy overpitched ball on leg stump. Steward pounced on it to produce a fine drive towards mid-on. The ball never it made it past the square though as Shiraz Amman dived full length to his left to take a spectacular left handed catch! Portcullis 52-3.

It was the turn of Simon Winstanley to take to the field. He joined Mostofa to take the attack to the Siyapian side. Mostofa equalled Steward’s feat of a six and a four in his innings, again the four being of greater achievement than the six. Winstanley dug in alongside his partner as the pair enjoyed a fourth wicket partnership of 26.

During this time Siyapa introduced Raza Ritwa, Shiraz Amman and Tanveer Khan into their bowling attack as they looked to make inroads into the Portcullis batting line-up. Of these three it was the combination of the former and the latter that would bring about the end to the Portcullis innings.

Bizarrely it coincided with the late arrival of Siyapa’s eleventh man, Abdullah Khan, which the fourth wicket fell.

It was that man Mostofa who went. An uncharacteristically loose shot from the bowling of Ritwa towards mid-off where the recently introduced to the field of play Abdullah was on hand to take a fine catch. Portcullis 78-4.

Winstanley was to go next as he was a tad unfortunate to be bowled by one to stay low to become Ritwa’s second wicket in four balls. Portcullis 79-5.

What followed after was carnage as Portcullis’s innings came to an abrupt and calamitous end.

Tanveer Khan, in his very next over decided that he too wanted to join in the fun. His first victim was Jayaraj Raj. A massive heave resulted in a fine edge, wicketkeeper Zafar Khan on hand to take a simple catch. Portcullis 79-6.

Ritwa went onto take his third wicket with a quite superb caught and bowled. An overpitched delivery was gleefully driven back towards the bowler by new batsman Owen Thorpe. Alas he was not as gleeful as Ritwa showed fantastic reactions and courage to instinctively thrust out his hand to hold onto a rocket of a shot! Portcullis 78-7.

Two balls later Ritwa took his fourth ball of the innings as he enticed new batsman Bob Adie to fall by the way of the same method that saw off Mostofa. A slightly overpitched ball was driven towards mid-off where the catch-contagious Khan was on hand to take his second catch of the match. Portcullis 79-8.

Tanveer Khan saw it upon himself to finish the Siyapa innings in his next over. First his fine spin bowling deceived Chris Poolman into playing down the wrong line and he was duly bowled. His next delivery saw Andrew Blackwell lured into taking a wild swish at a drifting delivery outside off stump. Blackwell only succeeded in obtaining a faint edge, Zafar Khan on hand once again to take a fine catch, wrapping up the innings.

There was a little confusion due to Blackwell’s apparent reluctance to walk. He was out and this was not in dispute. His reluctance to leave was due to his disappointment in his self in getting out in such a fashion.

Anyway Portcullis’s innings had come to a rather abrupt end. Having been at one point 78-3, Portcullis were 79 all out. Their batting was lead by Shovon Mostofa with 32 whilst Gary Steward supported with 16. For Siyapa Raza Ritwa took 4-21 which included a spell of 4 wickets in 9 balls as well as an exceptionally sore hand as a result of that magnificent caught and bowled. Tanveer Khan assisted with the demolition of Portcullis’s middle and lower order with figures of 3-4, his three wickets coming in seven balls.

After a fine tea it was time for Siyapa to chase down Portcullis’s somewhat disappointing total in the end. For Portcullis the objective would be to try and take some wickets in order to tidy up the result.

Skipper Gary Steward elected to open his bowling with Shovon Mostofa and himself. For Siyapa the batting reply would come from the opening pairing of Zafar Khan and Danish Ishaq.

It was Portcullis who drew first blood. Mostofa’s second ball was a tad short and Zafar Khan climbed into a thunderous pull shot towards mid-wicket which was looking boundary bound. That was until big Dave Forbes instinctively thrust out his right hand to hang onto a quite superb catch. Siyapa 0-1.

Usman Naseem joined Danish Ishaq at the crease. The pair hung around long enough to take the score to 12 before Portcullis took their second wicket. It was the turn of Ishaq to leave the field. A late outswinger from Mostofa catching the outside edge of the Siyapan player’s bat. The ball ballooned up towards gully where Andrew Blackwell was on hand with safe hands and steady nerves to hang onto a fine catch. Siyapa 12-2.

Portcullis were right back in this match when Gary Steward captured the wicket of Usman Naseem. Naseem driving one back to Steward who once again showed good hands to complete a fine caught and bowled. Siyapa 14-3.

Despite taking a wicket Steward took himself from the attack and brought on Owen Thorpe. Thorpe had impressed over the recent weeks at practice and it was the right opportunity to give him a go.

His opening over was to be a wicket maiden as he captured the scalp of new batsman Tanveer Khan, bowling him after softening him up with a few plays and misses with some fine seam bowling. Siyapa 17-4!

Kamran Taggar was joined at the crease by skipper of the day Salman Bedaar. Taggar showed enthusiastic aggression with his batting. Bedaar brought about a calm approach to his batting and brought much needed serenity to the Siyapan innings.

Taggar could not contain himself though. A juicy full toss from new bowler Jayaraj Raj was too much for the Siyapan batsman to resist. A massive yahoo with the bat did not make contact with the ball and he found himself bowled. Siyapa 26-5.

At this stage the match was anyone’s. The reporter here felt that to win though Portcullis had to get rid of Bedaar early. He was joined by Shiraz Amman, he of the innings of 167 against Dunecht back in June. The pair took the score to 49 before Mostofa captured the wicket of Amman, his third of the match. He encouraged Amman to drive at one he shouldn’t have and the ball flew towards Steward at mid-off where he took a fine catch. Siyapa 49-6.

This brought Ratwa Rizwi to the crease. With the calm Bedaar, the pair took the score onto 63. Steward had at this introduced Chris Poolman into the attack. A bold move as Poolman’s spin bowling has the potential to win matches. He encouraged Bedaar to come out of his solid mode of batting to sweep one. The ball went like a rocket towards deep square leg where Bob Adie was on hand to take another fine catch to go along with the other fine catches that had been taken by both teams. Although Portcullis had finally rid themselves of the influential Bedaar, the damage had already been done. Siyapa 63-7.

The match was swinging back towards the direction of Siyapa. Shahid was next man in. He introduced himself with a fine four. Ritwi decided that after an earlier six, he wanted to go home. A fine four was followed by a match winning six and the win for Siyapa was complete.

A fair result in the end. Siyapa winning by three wickets although Portcullis could take comfort with the knowledge that they made the match more competitive than they expected after getting out for 79. It was a match played in good spirits. Both teams enjoying the occasion which is what Grade Three cricket is all about.

PORTCULLIS MAN OF THE MATCH.

SHOVON MOSTOFA takes the honours. His 32 with the bat awas backed up with bowling figures of 3-31.

PORTCULLIS CATCH OF THE MATCH.

The Portcullis Viking DAVID FORBES take the honours with that blinding catch at square leg. He had a cracking bruise to show for it as well!

SIYAPA MAN OF THE MATCH.

RATWA RITZI takes the honours. His bowling spell of 4-21 was backed up by his 21 not out with the bat.

SIYAPA CATCH OF THE MATCH.

That man RATWA RITZI again. His caught and bowled against Owen Thorpe was the best catch I had seen from an opponent all season.

Next up the Cup Final against Grampian!!

Friday, 26 August, 2016