Five-wicket win for Forres St Lawrence in Inverness as cup final is reached
A five-wicket win against Highland of Inverness took Forres St Lawrence to the final of the knock-out cup on Saturday.
Sloppy fielding from Forres, especially some uncharacteristically poor catching, allowed the home side to post 197 for 3.
J Paul starred with the bat, making 93 whilst R Raja backed this up with 46 and Sunderan 22. The outfield was fast, some loose bowling didn’t help and it took the Forres bowlers some time to get to grips with the new artificial at Fraser Park. Despite that, Highland posted a solid total.
The Forres reply got off to an energetic start. The opening over went for 13, the second 16 with four boundaries from Pal Dhami and the third another 13. A total of 42 was on the board after 3 overs, nearly a quarter of the runs already scored by Dhami and Al Farr.
Al Farr was out for 27 followed quickly by Watkin but Gus Farr built another partnership with Dhami, guiding the innings to 154 when a mix up between the batsmen left Farr stranded on 43.
Aziz contributed a timely 18 to move Forres to the brink of victory then gifted a catch to backward point on 197, leaving Gerrard to stand and watch as Dhami stroked the ball to the mid wicket boundary to finish hid innings on 97 not out.
Next week Forres visit Fraser Park again, this time in the league. On Sunday the second XI lost by five runs to Fochabers, scoring 136.