ABERDEENSHIRE drew first blood yesterday in their crucial league and cup double-header against Grange.
Inspired by Daya Singh's four-wicket haul, the Dons cruised to an easy eight-wicket win, rekindling their CSL Eastern Premier title aspirations and claiming the psychological edge ahead of today's Scottish Cup quarter-final at Portgower Place.
Grange suffered the worst possible start when George Munsey was run out for a duck and Singh's first wicket, coupled with one for skipper Tyler Buchan, had the visitors struggling on 21-3.
Josh Edwards went on to top score with 31 before succumbing to the pace of Singh who finished with 4-14 as Grange collapsed to 96 all out with more than 10 overs of their allocation unused.
Calum Howard and Kenny Reid went cheaply in the Aberdeenshire reply, but Harsha Cooray made batting look simple on a day when most others struggled.
The Sri Lankan raced to 55no from only 42 balls, with eight boundaries and a six, as 'Shire romped to victory. He had solid support from Graeme Tomlinson who was unbeaten on 24.
Meanwhile, Carlton survived a huge scare before keeping their title bid on course with a nerve-jangling win over bottom-of-the-table SMRH at Inverleith.
Chasing a modest 121, the Grange Loan outfit slumped to 88-6 and then 118-9 as Craig Mackellar claimed 5-37 before the last pair got them over the line.
The one-wicket win was enough to take Carlton to the top as leaders Arbroath fell to only their second defeat of the season, going down at home to improving Watsonians.
The Lochlands side underperformed with the bat in reaching just 211-9 before 'Sonians hit their target with four wickets to spare.
Player-coach Cammy Farrell scored a century as Heriot's beat Stoneywood-Dyce by 13 runs, despite an unbeaten 84 from Jan Stander.
In Coatbridge, Drumpellier strengthened their Western Premier challenge at the expense of Ayr.
Jarod Armitage did give the home side a brisk start, but the loss of three quick wickets, including two to young Elliot Speirs, had them in trouble on a tricky Langloan track.
But a 126-stand between home captain Graeme McLare and Asid Mohammed put them in charge on their way to a challenging 224-5 and it proved more than enough against an experienced visiting line-up.
Imran Adrees, as executioner-in-chief, took 4-32 and Will Leslie 3-11 as Ayr collapsed to 111 all out in 32.2 overs. Drumpellier's victory sets up a top-of-the-table derby next week with leaders Uddingston, who overcame bottom side Stirling by seven wickets.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article