Warriors slay Knights
The Western Warriors got their regional campaign off to a victorious start with a comfortable 36 run win over the Eastern Knights in a rain affected encounter at Goldenacre, Edinburgh.
In a match reduced to 22 overs a side following a lunchtime deluge; the Warriors were asked to bat by home captain Gordon Drummond. Warriors’ new boy Navdeep Poonia wasted no time in resting the initiative, as he rushed to 31 from only 18 balls with an excellent display of all round stroke-play. He was finally dismissed with the West total on 68 after seven overs. Further impetus was added by Gregor Maiden (30 from 28 balls) and Safyaan Sharif (17 from 13 balls), before Qasim Sheikh (18 fro 20 balls) and Ian Young (19no from 23) finally guided the Warriors to a highly competitive total of 152 – 8 from their 22 over allocation. Gordon Drummond was the pick of the home bowling attack with 3 -19 from his 4 overs.
The Knights reply was dented by an aggressive spell of bowling from Safyaan Sharif (3-30) who removed both Hairs and Flannigan in his opening over. The innings appeared back on track with a brisk partnership of 46 between Fraser Watts and Neil McCallum. The recovery was ended however in the eighth over, when the later was fourth out dismissed caught and bowled by Haq’s second ball with the score on 60. From then on wickets fell at regular intervals and the Knights challenge was finally extinguished when Watts (30 from 34 balls) became the eighth wicket to fall with the score on 110 in the seventeenth over.
The Knights will be disappointed to fall to their second straight defeat of the season, following their opening day defeat to the youthful Highlanders at Arbroath. But they will surely be more disappointed at the manner of their defeat, having been bowled out for only 116 in eighteen overs. Warriors coach Tony Judd was pleased with his team’s first outing saying “We stuck well to our game plan to be aggressive from the start and that paid off. We are determined to play a brand of cricket that ultimately will help Scotland teams be successful in the future and today that helped us get a win.”
The next 40 over match in the Regional Series is a mouth watering encounter which sees the resurgent Warriors taking on the champion Highlanders on May 29th at Bothwell Castle Policies, Uddingston. The match begins at 12 noon with free admission.
There is more cricketing action tomorrow between a Scottish Academy XI who take on Durham Academy at Uddingston CC starting at 11am.
Scottish Academy XI- Ryan Flannigan (Watsonians), Calum MacLeod (Uddingston), Tom McBride (Dumfries), Aman Bailwal (Forfarshire), Henry Edwards (Grange), Peter Ross, Keith Morton (Heriot's), Calvin Burnett, Marc Petrie (Arbroath), Safyaan Sharif (Dunfermline), William Rowan (Greenock)
