Weekend cricket prospects
NORTH SEA PRO SERIES
Reivers open their challenge in the inaugural North Sea Pro Series against Dutch Hurrricanes this weekend minus two of their most influential players, writes William Dick.
The sides meet at Titwood and will contest a Twenty20 match today and a 50-over encounter tomorrow but missing for Reivers will be their captain Richie Berrington and Calum MacLeod.
Berrington has been unable to recover from an ankle injury in time to play – he has also been omitted from the Scotland squad for Friday’s one-day international against England – while MacLeod has commitments with Durham where he is on trial.
Their Saltires team-mate Majid Haq will lead the Reivers side which includes a number of debutants – the Poloc youngster Craig Young and the hugely experienced South African Con de Lange – are two of them, as well as a call-up for the Scotland pace bowler Iain Wardlaw who was released by Yorkshire during the close season.
The Derbyshire fast bowler Ali Evans is included in Scotland’s other pro team, the Highlanders, who are in Voorburg to face the Seafarers in similar encounters tomorrow and Monday. The four teams will play each other in both formats of the game in tournaments designed to compensate for the Saltires and their Dutch counterparts losing their place in English county competition.
Reivers M Haq, O Hussain, S Abassi, C De Lange, C Young, N Alexander, M English, M Iqbal, S Beveridge, I Wardlaw, S Sharif, N Smith, S McElnea Highlanders C Wallace, C Burnett, M Parker, G Goudie, A Bailwal, M Leask, E Chalmers, C Farrell, H Gardiner, A Evans, G Munsey, C Gosain Aman Bailwal, the talented Forfarshire all-rounder, is confident that his side can bounce back from their opening-day defeat by Heriot’s when they play host to Watsonians at Broughty Ferry today, writes David Kelso. He was the only man to perform close to his potential at Goldenacre and the onus will be on the batsmen to produce a more robust display against the men from Myreside.
“It was a bit of a wake-up call in Edinburgh,” acknowledged Bailwal, who said that the two new overseas recruits, Aaron Lilly and Liam Gough have settled in well. “Conditions were bowler-friendly, but there were no excuses for not chasing a total as low as 88. Obviously, there wasn’t too much wrong with our attack and we need to maintain that momentum with the ball. If that happens, I am confident we will be well enough equipped to earn a good chance of victory. Watsonians have been one of the most successful clubs over the past few years, though, and we know they will be a hard nut to crack.”.
Though not entirely convincing, the Scottish champions Arbroath cleared the Grange hurdle at Lochlands when they launched their title defence.
Today they face a potentially tricky game in Fife, against promoted Falkland, who underlined their threat with two notable wins last week. They began their league campaign by outgunning SMRH at Inverleith, then they snuffed out the challenge of Meigle to progress in the British Village Cup. The signing of the Scotland spearhead Safyaan Sharif is already paying dividends, as demonstrated by his cheap fourwicket haul against SMRH.