Something has to give as fast starters go toe-to-toe

Both for far shire and mazars Grange secured good opening day wins in the CSL Eastern Premier Division last week and the duo meet in an intriguing clash at Forthill this afternoon, writes Gary

Heatly.

The home side saw off Watsonians seven days ago and Grange got the better of Aberdeenshire, while a number of the respective teams’ players have been on Scotland A duty this week.

This one is set to be a cracker, although Forfarshire will be without skipper Umair Mohammed, who is unavailable. Scott Cameron leads.

Grange have been boosted by the availability of James Dickinson, who is on the books down south at Leicestershire, and Duncan Player is also in. They replace Stuart Davidson and Tom Foulds. Reigning champions Heriot’s make the short trip to Stewart’s Melville with Loedolff Potgieter coming in for a debut alongside the experienced seamer Sean Weeraratna. Missing for Heriot’s is last week’s man of the match Michael Shean and James Hearn.

Having been bowled out for 91 against Arbroath, Stewart’s Melville skipper Greg Ruthven has brought in Chris Bissett.

RH Corstorphine lost at Heriot’s, but will want to make home advantage count when they welcome Glenrothes to East Barnton Avenue. In the one change to their XI, Ally Sadler misses out due to university exams and is replaced by with Rob Thirlwell. Glenrothes have a few players injured and a number of new faces, but skipper Safyaan Sharif is looking forward to the challenge in Edinburgh.

There will be a repeat of the 2017 Scottish Cup final when Carlton meet Watsonians at Grange Loan. Both sides go into the encounter looking for first 50-over wins of the campaign. They have had good results in T20 cricket this week and both will be keen to get a victory to keep momentum going. For the hosts, Omar Ahmad is in for Tom Williamson.

Watsonians bring in allrounder Brendan O’connell and Lewis Dingle for the unavailable Andrew Cockburn and Tom Pratt. Aberdeenshire and Arbroath meet at Mannofield with two old pals set to face off. Akshu Fernando and Shanuka Vithanawasam, the teams’ respective pros, used to be team mates in Sri Lanka.