Greenock suffer Berrington blow

Greenock look set to do without Scottish cricket's man of the moment Richie Berrington for this afternoon's SNCL Premiership clash with Watsonians at Glenpark.

The 24-year-old all-rounder was the man everyone was talking about during midweek when he smashed a quite superb 56 off just 24 deliveries to help Scotland defeat Ireland in a high-scoring ODI clash at the Citylets Grange.

Ahead of tomorrow and Monday's Clydesdale Bank 40 matches against Northants and Warwickshire at the same ground it was hoped that Berrington would be able to play as a batsman only for his club side today.

However, a hamstring injury sustained in Wednesday's loss to Sri Lanka may see him have to sit this one out.

Greenock currently sit 11th in the top-flight table having recorded two wins from their five completed matches so far and, despite the likely loss of Berrington, captain Ryan Begley is looking forward to the match today and the rest of the season.

He said: "After a poor time last summer we took a step back over the winter and tried to rebuild. The attitudes from the guys so far this season has been great and the team spirit has only got better since Tim McIntosh returned to the club.

"He was a big influence in the dressing room the last time he was here and he is doing the same again. He gets the players around him to up their games and he is, of course, a top quality cricketer to have available."

Kiwi pro McIntosh returned to these shores a few weeks ago as a replacement for Luke Butterworth after he was called into the Australia A squad for the tour of Zimbabwe.

In 2008 McIntosh scored 821 runs and took 23 wickets as Greenock finished runners-up to Grange in the league and already this time around he has overseen a win over Ayr two weeks ago. He will be in the line-up this afternoon and is likely to be joined by exciting young prospect Alex Baum who has this week been on Scotland under-17 duty down south.

Watsonians travel to Glenpark in sixth place and have Scotland under-19 captain Paddy Sadler back to open the bowling. He will be on a high having recently played for Cambridge University in three wins over old rivals Oxford University.

Leaders Carlton make the trip to Aberdeenshire with Preston Mommsen having proved his fitness in this week's Scotland matches and they will be looking for their eighth win out of eight completed matches.

Second placed Forfarshire bring in Dale Sweeney for their trip to Titwood to take on Clydesdale with the home side having won a Rowan Cup Twenty20 match against Drumpellier in midweek.

Scotland under-19 man Ross McLean will be looking for some runs to cement his place in the age-grade side's top order when Arbroath welcome reigning champions Grange to Lochlands.

On Tuesday McLean opened the batting against the Netherlands, but he did not play in the second match a day later and he will be keen to make sure he is in the starting XI when the World Cup qualifiers start in Ireland later this month.

Seamer Hassan Durrani makes his first top-flight league appearance for Heriot's as they get set to welcome Ayr to Goldenacre in a noon start.

Durrani replaces the unavailable Craig McKellar, while Ayr pro Michael Papps needs 53 runs to take him over the 600 mark for the summer.

Elsewhere today Drumpellier take on Stoneywood-Dyce, Uddingston face an in-form Stirling County team and Dunfermline Knights make the trip to Hamilton Crescent to take on West of Scotland.