McCann ton fires Carlton to semi finals
Carlton faced a home Scottish Cup quarter final tie against Aberdeenshire after convincing victories over Forfarshire and Grange in the earlier rounds. Three changes were made to the team that had defeated Stewarts Melville the day before, with Rory McCann, Fraser Burnett and Chayank Gosain returning. The day started positively when Evo won the toss and elected to bat in favourable conditions. Carlton were to lose an early wicket when Fraser loosely drove a wide ball straight to the hands of the wicket keeper. In came McCann who, alongside Kyle, put together a strong partnership and built upon aggressive running and punishment of loose deliveries. With the score on 96, Kyle bottom edged a pull shot into his stumps for a well made 47.
Arun came to the crease continuing the accumulation as McCann passed 50. Aberdeenshire mixed up their attack with variations of spin and seam however it did little to stem the steady flow of runs from the Carlton batsmen. When Arun and Simmo fell in quick succession, Corne arrived in the middle with the intention to accelerate the scoring through the latter part of the Carlton innings. Corne targeted the short boundary extremely well, hitting some powerful sixes. As Corne upped the intensity McCann was casually going about his business, bringing up a fantastic hundred with a flick off his legs. When Rory was dismissed LBW in the 47th over for 119, the score sat on 282/5. Some lusty blows from Evo and Corne pushed the final total up to 315/6 to conclude the innings, a second score of 300+ in as many weeks. Credit must go to McCann for a brilliant hundred that laid a brilliant platform for Corne’s big hitting 78 off 39 balls.
After a fantastic tea Carlton set about defending the 315 that would take them through to the semi-finals. Corne started strongly challenging the openers and suckering Reid into a top edge that swirled high above the point region. Kyle did extremely well to stay composed and take a good catch over his head. The other opener looked to take an aggressive approach attempting to pick up length from Shiv, however he was done by the extra bounce of Corne, mistiming a pull to Cheeky at square leg. Shiv then had Venske caught at mid on to take the score to 38/3. Evo started extremely brightly, appearing to catch the edge first ball, however the umpire turned down the loud Carlton appeals. This wasn’t to matter as Corne picked up his second simple run out in two days before Evo dismantled the stumps of Aberdeenshire’s sixth batsman. When Kyle was to take a second sharp catch to remove the pro off Evo’s bowling followed by Evo picking up a third next ball, the Aberdeenshire reply was left in tatters at 73/7. Pleasingly Carlton did not take their foot off the throat of the opposition cleaning up their tail with wickets from Raza and Arun to end the reply on 97ao.
All in all a very convincing 218 run victory for Carlton which sets up a home semi final against Stoneywood Dyce a week on Sunday.
Tom Simpson