Cricket: Jan Stander for Scotland, says George Ninan

STONEYWOOD-DYCE skipper George Ninan reckons Scotland chiefs would be mad to keep on snubbing Jan Stander.

Ninan delivered his verdict after the all-rounder produced his best-ever bowling display for the club to propel them to a crushing triumph over Heriot’s at Peoples Park.

Stander ripped through the capital side, finishing with eight cheap wickets to his name, though it has to be pointed out that several of Heriot’s frontline players were absent at the Scottish Cup final at Hampden.

Ninan said: “For whatever reason, Jan is out of favour with the national selectors at the moment – I just wish they had seen him this weekend. Okay, the conditions suited his style of bowling, but he still had to put the ball in the right place – and he certainly did that.”

Ninan, however, insisted that the demolition job was no one-man affair, explaining: “Elton Willemse at the other end acted as the perfect foil and was very unlucky not to claim a greater share of the wickets.”

He added: “This is a result that will give us a tremendous confidence boost, though it did not come as too much of a surprise to me.”

Ninan and Co. had feared the worst when they were shot out for just 138, Sean Weeraratna and Ali Farooq sharing six scalps. But when Stander and Willemse got into their stride, Heriot’s were doomed, the former snapping up 8-31 as Heriot’s hurtled to 57 all out in 22 overs.

To complete a notable double for the Granite City, Aberdeenshire snuffed out the challenge of Forfarshire by 10 runs at Forthill. Professional Harsha Cooray earned a five-wicket haul to restrict the Broughty Ferry brigade to 156 in pursuit of 176.

The hosts had got off to the ideal start by removing dangerous veteran Neil MacRae for a duck, but tidy knocks of 33 by Kenny Reid, 38 from Martin Hays and 34 not out by skipper Tyler Buchan steadied the ship.

Forfarshire appeared to be cruising when they reached 79 for one, only to collapse.

Brendan Ford (32) and Matty Parker (36) laid the foundations, but Cooray grabbed control of the contest to get rid of the pair, along with captain Craig Wallace, Aman Bailwal and Tony Weed. Their last six wickets tumbled for just 31 runs.

The other two matches in the division were rained off.