NEXT month’s Citylets Scottish Cup final will be contested by Heriot’s and Carlton after two semi-finals which, at least for neutrals, were disappointingly one-sided.
At Goldenacre last year’s beaten finalists totally dominated their encounter with Arbroath, a team who lifted the trophy as recently as 2015, yet yesterday were skittled for just 35.
Chasing an imposing but not impossible 264, the contest was over within the first few overs of the reply by which time the visitors had slumped to 13-4.
And it got no better for the Lochlands side, renowned for their fighting spirit but who on this occasion simply went down with a whimper.
Wickets continued to fall all too quickly, the end coming after just 19.4 overs.
Elliot Ruthven did the early damage with two crucial early wickets but it was Scotland star Mark Watt who did the bulk of the damage.
A four-wicket hero for Derbyshire against Yorkshire in the Vitality Blast twenty-four hours earlier, Watt claimed another four-wicket haul while conceding just six runs as Arbroath collapsed miserably.
Earlier half-centuries from Elnathan Meiri (60) and man-of-the-match Watt (67) propelled the capital troops to 263-7.
Across the city at Grange Loan Stoneywood-Dyce had been targeting a first-ever final appearance but they too came up well short as the 2017 winners booked a return to the final.
Batting first, Arun Pillai and Tom Simpson provided the foundation for a substantial total with 44 and 46 respectively but it was Corne Dry who took the match away from the Aberdonians.
The South African took advantage of a tiring attack to plunder 94 and carry Carlton to an impressive 281-9, Jamie King (3-57) and Jan Stander (2-57) keeping the visitors in contention.
However, the Granite City side never recovered from the loss of veteran batsman George Ninan to Shiv Gupta in the first over.
When Liam Lindsay departed cheaply to Dry and former Saltires star Stander became Gupta’s second victim it was left to Jack Mitchell to lead by example, the skipper striking a defiant 41.
However, Mitchell had little support as the home bowlers kept making inroads, David Kidd the only other batsman to reach double figures as Stoneywood-Dyce subsided to 94 all out from 32 overs.
As with the bat, Dry was Carlton’s top performer with the ball, claiming 3-11 while Gupta (2-7) and Chayank Gossain (2-22) were also excellent.
The final will take place on August 25 at Meikleriggs, Paisley.
