Northern Counties beat Irvine to reach quarter finals of Cricket Scotland Challenge Cup to cap of perfect weekend that also included win over defending Nosca Senior League champions Forres
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Northern Counties capped off an impressive weekend last time out by booking their spot in the quarter finals of the Cricket Scotland Challenge Cup.
Despite being early in the season, it was a weekend that could have put an entirely different slant on their campaign, with Counties travelling to defending Nosca Senior League champions Forres on Saturday before playing host to Irvine in the national cup competition at Strathpeffer's Castle Leod on Sunday.
There were similarities between both matches, which turned out to be low-scoring affairs, but in both instances Counties prevailed.
At Forres, Shaun Thomas (27), Nuwan Eshwara (26) and Lewis Pacey (24 not out) helped the Inverness club to a total of 108–8, before Pacey and vice-captain Matty Latimer took three wickets apiece on the way to bowling Forres out for 103.
Counties' bowling attack kept it tight against Irvine too, restricting the visitors to 131 off their 40 overs after making the long journey north.
In response, the only Nosca side in the national competition rallied around Richard Smith, who scored 62 to provide a base for his teammates to bat around, and they reached the required total with an over to spare.
"It was a pretty special weekend," club captain Will Ford enthused.
"Everything went our way, and the boys worked really hard, so it was good to get results in both games. With the way things are going at the moment it just feels like all the boys are working together to achieve what we want to achieve.
"It just feels like we're on a wave to be honest, things are going our ways. The boys are sticking together, we go into games with a gameplan that everyone's behind, and that showed on Saturday and Sunday.
"Irvine had one professional and one lad who is just getting his pro contract with them, so we thought it might be a step too far for us when they turned up.
"They were a lovely bunch of lads, but we got their South African lad out – Luge – really early when Lewis Pacey got him LBW. That put them on the back foot, and they maybe realised they weren't playing village cricket all of a sudden.
"They didn't have any answers. We didn't bowl them out, but we didn't let them score big – and when we were playing at Castle Leod, we know that's a high scoring ground, but it was a very low-scoring game.
"It was a great result, and maybe one we didn't expect, but looking back I don't know why we gave ourselves such a hard time and didn't expect it."
Change of focus in the Challenge Cup?
Northern Counties had been approaching the Challenge Cup as a learning experience for them this season – a chance to take the pressure off against the unknown and enjoy playing cricket.
With their win over Irvine, though, they have set up a quarter final tie away at Kelso.
Despite moving into the latter stages of the competition, though, Ford insists they will continue to treat any matches that come their way against teams in other parts of the country as a bonus.
"We're still using it as a distraction from everything else," he reasoned.
"Every step we go is a step forward, but because we don't know what we're facing we could turn up one week against lads who have been playing cricket all their lives, from all over the place, and we could get absolutely skittled for 50.
"That could happen, but at least we have the league and the domestic cups where we know what to expect week in, week out, so we're using this as a distraction and a learning experience for everyone really.
"We had a good chat after the game on Sunday and figured out things that worked for us.
"When we played Stenhousemuir last year in the cup, we learned a lot from them. We thought we had them – they were 40 for three or four with 10 to 15 overs to go, and we got ahead of ourselves thinking we had them, and it would be easier than it was.
"They brought on lads who could just knock it about and run between the wickets, so before we knew it they were up to 80 or 90 without hitting many boundaries. That got in our heads a bit, so it fell apart a bit after that.
"We learned a lot from that as a batting and a bowling side. We control the things we can control, and play to our strengths rather than worrying about the other team's strengths."
