Drumps defeat West Lothian
A superb 97 by Asad Mohammed put Drumpellier on their way to an empathic 162 run victory against West Lothian at Boghall.
The win was Drumpellier’s first on the road in more than two seasons and gives new professional Pieter Stuurman a winning start.
Drumpellier lost the toss and were sent in to bat on what looked a difficult wicket, but openers Zaheer Mohammed and Dan Stevenson put on fifty for the first wicket before the latter departed for 20.
Zaheer was joined at the crease by brother Asad and both players managed to keep the early momentum going through the middle overs as they took the total past the 200 mark and shared a 150 run partnership, before Zaheer fell for 70.
With less the than 10 overs reminaing Asad let loose to launch some big sixes before being caught on the boundary for an excellent 97.
Professional Pieter Stuurman along with skipper Graeme McLaren and Stevie Allison pushed the Langloan side along to an excellent score of 252 with some good hitting in the last few overs.
Drumpellier wasted no time in making inroads in to the West Lothian batting with openers Ian Warden and Alan Goodwin picking up early wickets to reduce 20 for 3, before veteran Warden picked up the prize scalp of Kriger Van Wky for 4.
The home side were in disarray at this stage and despite some stern middle order resistance eventually collapsed to 89 all out, with Chris Keltie picking up 3 for 9.
Skipper Graeme McLaren said “It is an excellent start to the season for us, credit must go to Asad and Zaheer they batted superbly to set up the win”
“We had a lot of positives on the field as well with all the bowlers contributing with wickets and Michael Anderson done well behind the stumps”
“Hopefully we can build on this now next week at home to West of Scotland, it is important we get some consistency to our play this season if want to be challenging.”
Meanwhile Drumpellier second string got their season off to an excellent start with a comprehensive 9-wicket victory over Kingholm at Langloan.
Drumpellier won the toss and elected to bowl first on a typically difficult early season wicket, a decision which paid off for the home side as the bowled Kingholm out for 95 with Arif Iqbal picking up six wickets.
The Langloan side wasted no time in chasing down the total for the loss of only one wicket with Alan Stevenson finishing 58 not out.
This weekend the first team have two homes games, first up is West of Scotland in the league on Saturday with a 1pm start and then Poloc in the West League Cup on Sunday with a 2pm.