Cricket: Patel stays calm in bid to break losing run

Grange skipper Sanjay Patel has urged his side to kick-start their Scottish Cricket Premiership campaign with a win over struggling Uddingston at Raeburn Place tomorrow.

The champions are in the unusual position of having lost back-to-back fixtures but Patel refuses to press the panic button, saying: "We just need to get into a bit of a groove so that eventually we reach the top four (who will decide the title] with a bit of a safety net and not needing late season wins and relying on other teams."

Compared with the side which lost at Forfarshire last week, Stuart Moffat and Henry Philip drop out.

There are call-ups to a squad of 12 for James Munro - scrum-half in the Edinburgh Academy team which won last year's Scottish Schools' Rugby Cup and a useful medium-pace bowler - as well as Andrew Brock and Henry Edwards.

Patel is wary of the fact that ex-internationalist Paul Hoffman is now back bowling for Uddingston and they also have an added threat in Saltire Calum MacLeod (ex-Warwickshire).

However, Grange's Kiwi professional Warren McSkimming claimed three wickets last weekend and will be expected to build on that performance.

A visit to Greenock gives Heriot's Australian amateur Adam Lockhart-Krause an opportunity to test the batting skills that have earned him 312 runs this season against a former club.

Lockhart-Krause has ruled out the prospect of qualifying for Scotland on residency grounds and said: "I've thought about it, but doubt I could handle the cold winters."

With modesty playing down his contributions so far, he added: "I've had a bit of luck with possible chances flying high through gaps in the field as well as being dropped a couple of times."

Where Lockhart-Krause is effusive is in praising batting partner Steve Knox's contribution of 110 to a second-wicket stand of 179 - the second highest in the league this year.

Queenslander Lockhart-Krause explained: "Steve has been struggling with injury but batted extremely well. We will obviously have to watch out this weekend for (Saltire] Richie Berrington but Jamie McDougall is a Greenock player I rate very highly from my time there and he could just explode into both runs and wickets any time."

Greenock - still without incoming pro Tim McIntosh from New Zealand due to Borders Agency protocol - are understandably wary of Lockhart-Krause who was persuaded to play in Scotland by ex-Brisbane club colleague Sean Weeraratna.

On the Heriot's website it states: "Adam has made a very fine start to the season with over 300 runs to his name in the five matches played, including two 50s and a century. Sean Weeraratna, who was in Greenock's Scottish Cup-winning side in 2007, is also a potent force for Heriot's with both bat and ball and Greenock will need to have a clear game-plan to ensure he does not have a productive return to Glenpark."

For Carlton, a trip to Dunfermline means a chance to avenge a whopping 140-run defeat by the Fifers last year - a fact not lost on all-rounder Steve Gilmour, who said: "In order to bolster the batting line-up, Nick Hunt comes in for Richard Metcalfe. Nick batted well in his last outing at Grange until being unfortunate to get a delivery which kept low.

"A Murgitroyd Masterton Trophy win over Edinburgh Accies in midweek allowed some other players to get into the middle and Gordon Drummond responded with a half century.

"Last week's league win against Watsonians saw Fraser Watts score another clinical 50 and Ally Evans bowled so quick our keeper stood further back than anybody I've seen at Grange Loan.

"The aim is to maintain that sort of form but we are aware of having lost last year at Dunfermline, who have a real prospect in Safyaan Sharif."

Watsonians, on their own admission, posted an under-par total of 155 in defeat at Carlton last week despite the best efforts of batsman Craig Wright (46 not out) and young keeper Fraser Boyd, who made 38 and whose total of 11 victims behind the stumps is unsurpassed so far this season. The Capital outfit will be making one change with Ally Fleming replacing Paddy Saddler, who has returned to university in England, in their quest to take Forfarshire's unbeaten record at Myreside.

In the championship, Edinburgh Accies head for West Lothian having highlighted Kruger van Wyk as the danger to a side lacking batting depth.

Batting shortcomings were exposed in the SMRH line-up thrashed at Dumfries last weekend but skipper Greg Bissett is hoping that result was freakish in recalling Robin Crouch and Matt Coyle for Ed Pickmere and TJ Beattie ahead of a trip to Stenhousemuir.

The home side last week included record Scottish international run-maker Iain Philip for a win at Edinburgh Accies which saw him top-score with 32 runs at the age of 52.