Tuesday 16th July At Grange Loan – Carlton 138 for nine (20 overs); Stewart’s Melville 139 for 4 (19.4 overs) Having been responsible for Grange’s elimination in the group stages the 1st XI produced one of their best batting performances of the season last night to secure a six wicket win against a strong Carlton side with three balls remaining of their 20 overs to progress to the semi-final match of the T20 Masterton Trophy competition. Having won the toss captain Steven Parker elected to bowl first and the tactic seemed to have worked when seven Carlton wickets were taken for inside 14 overs for 81 runs conceded. One of Carlton recognised strengths is their ability to bat deep so it was frustrating but no surprise that Peter Neame and ‘Cheeky’ Gosain added 52 runs for the eighth wicket and achieved a final score of 138 which seems about par for the side batting first in the competition. Slow bowlers Greg Ruthven with 3 for 20 and Hayden Sweet with 2 for 23 were our leading bowlers as so often in this competition. Carlton have two of the quickest club bowlers in the Scottish game in professional Corne Dry and Scottish internationalist Ali Evans yet often choose not to bowl them together mixing up their bowlers throughout. Michael Miller went early to a superb catch on the boundary by former Scotland rugby full-back Hugo Southwell (picked the wrong fielder there) and Shaylen Pillay after an early flurry of runs fell to Ali Evans first ball of the innings in the fifth over having replaced Dry at the pavilion end. Thereafter Kris Steel and Ben Wilkinson consolidated things so that after 10 overs we were 49 for 2. From that point onwards both players raised the tempo scoring freely against all bowlers in a partnership of 80 runs when Dry back for his third over bowled Kris Steel with score on 98. Hayden Sweet joined Ben Wilkinson at the crease and together they carried on with the run before Ben was run out attempting a third run at 119 in the eighteenth over. Hayden Sweet continued in aggressive style and the scores were tied second ball of the last over with a massive six with the winning run being scored two balls later. A huge win for the club which brings a semi-final on Thursday evening against Corstorphine at Barnton. Scoreline: Carlton 138 for 9 (P Neame 45, C Dry 20; G Ruthven 3 for 20, H Sweet 2 for 23.) SMCC 139 for 4 (B Wilkinson 46, K Steel 30, H Sweet 26 no, S Pillay 15; S Gupta 1 for 16 (2 overs), C Dry 1 for 23 (4 overs), A Evans 1 for 19 (4 overs).) View scorecard http://www.stewartsmelvillecricket.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Carlton-v-SMCC-15-07-19-v3.pdf