Last gasp victory for Dons

Having bowled visitors Uddingston out for 126 Aberdeenshire must have thought their victory would have been assured, however what followed in the second half was a timely reminder that cricket is often won and lost on the finest of margins.

Winning the toss and choosing to bowl first, Aberdeenshire started well, limiting scoring chances for the openers, however Buchan and Singh went wicketless in their opening spell as Uddy moved to 44 without loss. Adrian Neill continued his good start to life at Aberdeenshire by finding the breakthrough, removing Allan for 18. Tony McKenna then struck again in the following over to begin the Shire fightback, trapping Zia LBW for a duck.

The introduction of Shire Pro Harsha Cooray worked immediately, striking in his first over to trap Amir Gul LBW for a well made 38, reducing Uddingston to 65-3.

Sensing an opportunity, Tyler Buchan brought back Daya Singh from the Hutichson terrace end with devasting results. With the sun finally breaking through for the first time this summer Daya produced a hostile spell of bowling tearing through the Uddingston middle order. Starting with a double wicket maiden Daya's 4 over burst returned 5 wickets for 9 returns to leave the Uddingston innings in tatters at 76-8.

A late fightback from Uddingston, led my skipper Brian Clarke (26*) hoisted the visitors score over the hunderd mark before Singh and McKenna returned to close out innings on 126.

Daya Singh the destroyer in chief, taking 6-19 from his 10 overs.

The Dons reply stuttered into life as Howard and Tomlison were dismissed by visting Pro Priyadashrana and when Chris Venske was trapped LBW an over later the Dons innings was beginning to wobble on 11-3.

A middle order fightback was required, and Reid (14) and Cooray (29) provided us just that with a partnership of 40 before a suicidal run out opened the door for Uddingston once again.

This triggered another mini collapse as Shire lost 6 wickets for 21 runs in a match changing 10 over spell.

Daya Singh, due to bat at 8 but for a bought of cramp halfway to the middle, came in at number 10 to be joined by number 11 Adrian Neill (16*). The pair combined perfectly, Adrian striking two boundaries within his first 7 balls, Daya taking 22 balls to get off the mark.

Cooly and Calmy they manoeuvred the ball around the infield, taking singles on offer to edge closer to the target. Singh (33*) began to take control of the innings, advancing against the spinner to clear the infield and with only 1 run required a cover drive for 4 sealed an incredible victory for the Dons to continue their 100% start to the season.

A hard fought victory which should of never been allowed to come down to the final pair, but a great game of cricket for spectators!