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Under-17s get a taste of multi-day cricket in Ayr

Cricket Scotland @CricketScotland
July 13, 2021 3 years

Gary Heatly rounds-up the latest pathways action…

The Western Warriors under-17 boys hosted their Eastern Knights counterparts in a two day game last week at Ayr’s New Cambusdoon ground.

Most of the players involved had never played much multi-day cricket before, so it was a good test for them all and they came through it with flying colours.

Batting first on day one, the Knights skipper Alex Hodge (Watsonian CC) put on 30 before he was out, but fellow opener Harry Armstrong (Stewart’s Melville CC) carried along on his merry way and made a brilliant 93 before unfortunately being run out.

In the end, the Knights made a healthy 321 all out with Armstrong’s knock the highlight.

With the ball Clydesdale CC’s Nikhil Koteeswaran led the way with 4-43, a real captain’s effort, while his club team mate Shahan Raja took three scalps and Thomas Willmott (Uddingston CC) took one.

In their first innings reply, the Warriors lost the like of in-form Clydesdale man Owen Gould early on, but 43 from Willmott kept things ticking over as the clash headed into day two.

Bahadar Esakhiel of Clydesdale then came in and played a superb knock from number seven, his century helping the Warriors to go past the follow on score of 221.

He was eventually out off the bowling of Livingston CC’s Jared Rubly, but he had hauled his side up to 238 all out.

Rubly took two wickets for the Knights, but it was Charlie Kentish of Carlton CC who led the way with three wickets.

In the second innings, Carlton’s Gavin Murray opened with Hodge and the former made 48 before getting out. That left them on 82-1 and was the close of play on day two with the Knights declared victors due to their higher first innings score.

Most importantly though it was a great run out for so many talented young players and Warriors head coach Mitchell Rao said: “It was such a great learning opportunity for the boys to play a longer format of the game.

“While it is a bit disappointing to lose, there are some golden learning opportunities for us to reflect on and improve on ahead of our next game.

“Our bowlers just need to provide a little bit more consistency, we know if we bowl dot balls we will get a chance so I hope for more of that next game.

“With the bat, I was super impressed with Bahader, his temperament was very good. He built his innings superbly and earned the right to have a bit of a whack at the end.”

At Forfarshire CC’s Forthill, the Scotland under-19 men played the Performance Academy last week.

The under-19s made 165 all out batting first with the Performance Academy going on to win by five wickets.

Earlier last week, the women’s Performance Academy had lost to the Northern Diamonds Academy at Alnmouth & Lesbury CC, Hannah Rainey’s three wickets the highlight.

Meanwhile, on Monday, to kick start this week, the Scotland under-15 boys defeated Northumberland down south at Alnmouth & Lesbury CC.

The home side made 153-8 from their 30 overs with Bahadar Esakhiel taking 2-31 and Watsonian CC’s Farhan Khan taking 2-36.

In the end Scotland came out on top via DLS after rain came, Harry Armstrong amongst the runs.

The Western Warriors and the Eastern Knights are pictured during their two day game

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