Cricket: Trinity pin hopes on centurions

Published on Tuesday 26 July 2011 10:51

Drummond TRINITY will be banking heavily on the batting skills of Jamal Nasir and Shehzad Nagi in Sunday's concluding stages of the Activcity twenty:20 cricket competition at Myreside and Craiglockhart.

The East Division Three side have been drawn against Division One Marchmont while, in the other semi, Holy Cross, also from Division One, tackle Division Four Morton who take the place of Fauldhouse as they have an SCU Trophy tie which takes priority.

All four sides can look forward to automatic entry to next season's Murgitroyd Masterton Trophy.

If Drummond Trinity are to progress then much will depend on Nasir and Nagi producing the form that has seen them make league scores of 138 and 101 against, respectively, Grange 3rds and Murrayfield DAFS 2nds.

Additionally, Nasir, who hit 75 not out in a quarter-final win over Livingston, has 17 wickets so far, five more than evergreen colleague Grant Weatherstone.

Skipper Angus McCallum, who misses the ties as he recovers from torn cruciate knee ligaments, says: "There is a touch of deja vu about the draw since the last time we qualified for the final stages we lost out to Marchmont.

"It's been a good season so far as we lie third in the table and success in the Activcity event would be the icing on the cake ahead of our annual six-a-side tournament at Inverleith Park on Sunday week."

For Holy Cross the Activcity is part of an intense run-in to the season also featuring a Parks Trophy final next Wednesday against Murrayfield DAFS at Newfield followed by a President's Trophy semi-final on Sunday week against Leith FAB.

Holy Cross are also lying third in the table and skipper Euan Smith says: "Part of our success is down to having five good seam bowlers with Charlie Ellis and Dougie Russell doing well with their slower deliveries.

"We won't be underestimating Morton but I suspect Marchmont will be the team to watch. We'd certainly love to meet them as our league meeting was washed out."