Contrasting wins for Clydesdale and Heriots kept the two leaders clear at the top of their respective leagues on Saturday as the Scottish competitions move into the final third.
It was an unbeaten century by Clydesdale’s Fawad Jawad, backed up by a fifty from Richie Berrington, which enabled the Glasgow side to bring the points home from their visit to Dumfries in the Western Premier League, as they chased down their hosts’ total of 200 all out and won by eight wickets.
Several Dumfries batters had made a start, Scott Beveridge, Chris Brockwell and Alan Davidson all making thirties, but no-one was able to go further and with Daniel Cairns cleaning up the tail to finish with three for 42 the total proved easy prey for Clydesdale’s top order.
Ferguslie’s Taimoor Ahmad was also among the runs, his 101 at Glenpark rescuing the Paisley men after Sean Fischer-Keogh had grabbed three quick wickets for Greenock, all caught by his wicketkeeper brother Lukas, to reduce the visitors to 14 for three.
Mohammad Ghaffar helped with the rebuilding process with 41, and although Neil Flack claimed three for 38 and Fischer-Keogh picked up another to finish with four for 42, Ferguslie closed on 240 for nine.
Then Haroon Tahir took over, and his remarkable figures of 10 – 6 – 8 – 6 told the story as Greenock collapsed to 49 all out in 26.1 overs, giving Ferguslie a 191-run victory.
At the Bothwell Castle Policies Azeem Akbar and Sachin Chaudhary did the damage for Prestwick as the Ayrshire side dismissed Uddingston for 117, taking three for 31 and three for 15 respectively, and although Uddingston fought hard in the field, taking six wickets, Prestwick reached their target with six and a half overs to spare.
A second-wicket partnership between Harry Booker (67) and Brandon McMullen (79) should have set Stirling County up for a big total against Langside at New Williamfield, but when the new-ball of Muhammad Afzal and Muhammad Adnan returned to the attack they ripped through the rest of the batting, no fewer than five ducks making up the lower half of the scorecard as County were all out for 186; Afzal finished with four for 16 an Adnan three for 64.
Skipper Sameer Zia led the way for Langside with 51, but with Euan Smith running through the middle order with three for 17 and McMullen finishing with the same figures the visitors were dismissed for 157, 29 runs short.
At Hamilton Crescent Poloc had reached 175 for four in just 31 overs, due largely to a third-wicket stand between Saif Sajjad (54) and Amaan Ramzan (74 not out), when rain intervened, and West of Scotland were set a DLS target of 178 from as many overs when play was able to resume.
This proved too much for them, and although skipper James Fennah made 41, three for 19 by Imran Adrees and three for 28 by Kess Sajjad ensured that they came no further than 141 before they were dismissed.
Eastern Premier League leaders Heriots could thank a dominant effort in the field for their seven-wicket victory over Meigle at Goldenacre, as the Perthshire side battled their way to 97 all out in 41.3 overs.
Heriots needed just 16 overs to knock off the runs, 35 of them from the bat of Mark Watt.
The bowling performance of the day in the East came from Carlton’s international paceman Ali Evans, who took six for 19 in seven overs as Stewarts Melville were bowled out for 111 at Grange Loan in reply to the home side’s massive 314 for seven.
Shujaa Khan (91) and Fraser Burnett (62) shared a third-wicket stand of 165 for Carlton after Joe Newman had grabbed a couple of early wickets, and then Arun Pillai’s 70 guided his side to their very substantial total.
Grange were too strong for Forfarshire at Forthill, Chris Sole reducing the home side to 38 for four before Scott Cameron (47) and Jack Hogarth (50) effected a partial recovery which enabled the county to reach 199 for seven.
That proved nowhere near enough, however, and although Grange were 136 for five at one stage, Thomas Foulds (43 not out) and Freddie Huddleston (33 not out) made sure they reached their target without further loss and with six and a half overs in hand.
In the mid-table clash at Lochlands Arbroath United beat Watsonians by 33 runs to consolidate their position in fifth spot, their total of 247 all out built on a second-wicket stand of 98 between batting stalwarts Ross McLean (69) and Matthew Parker (56); Gareth Weatherall’s five for 40 was instrumental in ensuring that the damage was not greater.
But although Zach Place (51) and Michael Carson (41) gave Watsonians’ reply a fine start with an opening partnership of 95, United were able to make steady inroads thereafter, McLean and Chris Robb taking five wickets between them as the Edinburgh side were restricted to 214 for nine.
Twenty wickets fell for just 125 runs as the bowlers had a field day at Barnton (where the pitch had been declared unfit a fortnight ago), Stoneywood-Dyce managing only 82 but then running through RH Corstorphine for 43.
Nikhil Ninan and Jamie King bowled unchanged for the Aberdonians, taking five for 20 and five for 23 respectively.
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