Gary Heatly looks ahead to Saturday’s matches in the Eastern Premier Division…
There have been a number of impressive knocks in the Eastern Premier Division to date this summer and Shujaa Khan’s 145 for Carlton in week four was right up there.
Right handed batter Khan scored the century opening the batting last Saturday to set the Grange Loan men on their way to a 211-run home victory over RH Corstorphine.
The triumph leaves the Edinburgh side fourth in the table with two wins from four as they get set to head to Lochlands and face an Arbroath side with a similar record in week five.
“It was a cracking day last Saturday at Grange Loan, the sun was shining, the wicket was decent, the outfield was fast and everything just seemed to line up for me,” Khan said about his 145 from 131 balls.
“I have played with Tom Simpson at the University of St Andrews before, so to team up with him and put together a record first XI partnership was also really nice over and above getting my own runs.
“When I was younger I played all of my cricket in Ayr and then I moved to St Andrews to start my medicine degree.
“In 2019 my parents moved to Edinburgh and subsequently I have moved to the city to complete the second half of my degree at the University of Edinburgh, so for the last couple of years I have been involved at Carlton.
“I only joined midway through the 2019 season and last summer wasn’t a normal cricketing one because of the pandemic while I also missed the start of this campaign due to exams.
“As a result, I am only now getting into things regularly and after scoring 50 for the second XI at the start of this month it has been nice to have been given a chance in the first team.
“I want to keep working hard on my batting and try and cement my place in the team by helping us get more wins going forward.”
Since their league win last week Carlton have lost in the Scottish Cup and in the regional T20 tournament.
Arbroath also lost out in the Scottish Cup second round last Sunday, but bounced back with a regional T20 win over Meigle on Tuesday evening with player/coach Matthew Parker making 52.
Meanwhile, elsewhere in the league on Saturday, leaders Gen!us Grange will be looking to cap off a brilliant seven days for them when they take on Watsonians at Myreside.
Last Saturday they beat Stoneywood Dyce in the league, last Sunday they beat Andersons East Kilbride in the Scottish Cup and on Tuesday evening they were victorious at Carlton in the regional T20 tournament.
Watsonians won three from three on the same days in the same competitions, so this could be a good battle of in-form sides.
Despite not playing in week four, ion8 Forfarshire are in second place and they will be keen to get things back up and running again in the league away to Stewart’s Melville.
Forfs did return to action on Wednesday night when Michael Leask and Rory Johnston thumped 198 and 110 respectively in a regional T20 win over Perth Doo’cot.
Stew Mel are bottom of the table, but will have taken heart from their own regional T20 win over Edinburgh Accies on Thursday.
Third placed Heriot’s are at home to Stoneywood Dyce with the former having not played last weekend and the latter having suffered a loss at Grange and they are now on their travels again.
RH Corstorphine go into their home clash with Meigle off the back of a confidence-boosting victory over Edinburgh in the regional T20 event on Thursday evening.
The Victory Park men have a big weekend, this game at Barnton being followed up by a trip to Morecambe in Lancashire to face Torrisholme CC in the Voneus Village Cup on Sunday.
Tom Simpson and Shujaa Khan are pictured after their great partnership for Carlton last weekend
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