Dons back to winning ways

Aberdeenshire lost the toss but were happily invited to bat first on a wicket which had been used for the ODI between Scotland and England a week earlier.

Calum Howard misjudged a Dewald Hel delivery fifth ball of the innings and was heading back to the pavilion having shouldered arms. This brought Hayes van der Berg to the middle with Chris Venske and the pair put together the highest Dons partnership of the innings adding 56 off just 63 deliveries.

Chris Venske continued his good early season form as he brought up his third consecutive league fifty, top scoring for the Dons with a powerfully made 62 off 74 balls. However when Venske departed, caught on the long off boundary, the Dons were 102-3 which sparked a mini mid innings collapse and became 119-5 with Graeme Tomlinson and Kenny Reid departing soon after.

Harsha Cooray (53) and Callum Martin (41) went about the rebuilding process and the pair batted very well, adding 54 for the sixth wicket which swung the innings back the Dons way. Solid lower order contributions meant the Dons were able to post 227 off their 50 overs, thanks largely to Venske, Cooray and Martin.

The Watsonians reply got off to a slow start in the face of some tight bowling from Tyler Buchan and Tony McKenna, McKenna claiming 3-22 off a nine over opening burst which reduced the visitors to 28-4 off the first fifteen overs.

Fraser Proud (1-26) and Adrian Neill (2-31) were introduced into the attack and the paid both picked up middle order wickets as Watsonians slid to 65-7 at the drinks break.

Fraser-Harris (64) combined brilliant with number 9 batsman Sands (39) to add 76 for the 8th wicket as the visitors fought back but once Cooray had removed Sands LBW, Tyler Buchan returned to claim the ninth and tenth wicket to finish with 3-12 and dismiss the visitors for 155, completing a 73 run win.

Aberdeenshire bounced back nicely from their defeat to Heriots and now sit in third place in the CSL Eastern Premier League