Forres St Lawrence retain James Kemp t20 title with win against Northern Counties as player taken to A&E
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
Forres St Lawrence retained their James Kemp T20 trophy on Saturday against league winners Northern Counties, who had a player end the match in A&E.
Forres were denied the final few balls due to an injury to a Counties fielder, which prompted the Inverness side to concede the game with 10 runs still to find.
Asked to bat first, Northern Counties were on the back foot. Green and Parker opened the batting but Green was gone when he top edged the ball, providing keeper Tahir with a catch to give Awan his first wicket.
Three boundaries gave Counties heart but then Awan struck again to remove Parkers for 10.
Dugdale and Thorp came together on 21 for 2 but Dugdale then missed a full straight one from Bashir which bowled him for 8, bringing Ford to the crease.
A crazy run out ended Fords innings; pushing for two he turned and ran regardless of Thorps call as the ball came in from the boundary, leaving Ford well short with only 6 to his name.
41 for 4 became 45 for 5 when Thorp waved his bat at a delivery from Awan and was caught behind for 7. Thomas and Latimer came together and built a little partnership, edging their score along to 63 when Latimer went for a big swipe off Aziz which was top edged to the keeper.
The arrival of Impey added some impetus and the score was suddenly passed 100. Ali was re-introduced, bowling Impey for 27, then four balls later bowling Eshwara for 1 to leave Northern Counties on 116 for 8 after 19.
Thomas grabbed four in the final over as Northern Counties were all out on 120. The pick of the Forres bowlers were Awan with 3 for 30 and Aziz with 2 for 13.
The Forres innings opened with Dhami and Ali at the crease but by the end of the first over Ali was out for 2. Awan joined Dhami and stayed until he was eventually run out off a defection by the bowler onto the stumps for 53.
The score was now 94 off 12 overs and the game was all but won.
Alasdair Farr joined Dhami and they had time to gather the last 27 runs.
On 107 for 2, Eshwara came back to bowl his final over but, on 111, Dhami drove the ball firmly back towards his face. He suffered an injury which stopped play and Northern Counties decided to concede the game with 10 runs needed, eight wickets and four overs left.
The injury was treated at A&E and Eshwara was able to go home afterwards.
