Carlton are bowling along quite nicely, thank you

Carlton skipper Ali Evans praised his bowling attack and is now looking for his team to kick on in the second half of the CSL Eastern Premier Division season after they finished the first half with a thumping win at Aberdeenshire on Saturday.

Grange batsman Scott Blain is forced to fend off a spinning bowl from RH Corstorphines Majid Haq

The eight-wicket triumph at Mannofield leaves the Grange Loan side sitting fourth in the table with three victories and three defeats from their six completed fixtures.

They have also lost three games to the weather and Evans, pictured inset, is now looking for more consistency in performance and a good run of sunshine as the exciting top-flight campaign heads towards the home straight.

On Saturday, Carlton started as favourites against an Aberdeenshire side sitting bottom of the table but, on their home turf, the men from the north east can be a match for anyone on their day.

This, emphatically, was not their day as Carlton took control from ball one.

Opening bowlers Corne Dry and Shiv Gupta put in a devastating spell of bowling as, batting first, Aberdeenshire fell to 22-5.

And there can be no worse sight for a team in this league when you are in that state than to then see Scotland seamer Evans joining the attack.

He took 3-4 to add to Dry’s 3-14 and Gupta’s 2-14, while spinner Adeel Raza joined the part with one wicket and there was a run out to compound the hosts’ woes.

In the end, they were 45 all out in just the 19th over and then Carlton – with Charlie Maxwell making 17 not out – knocked off the runs required in just 12.1 overs.

Evans, right, said: “We know that the strength of our side is the bowling attack, when guys like Omar Ahmad cannot get into the team it shows the strength we have in that area.

“And on Saturday we felt that if we could get a couple of early wickets then we could really put some pressure on Aberdeenshire and so it proved.

“It has been a funny season to date with the weather and such like, but we have taken a lot of learnings from the games we have played and we want to take them into the second half of the season.

“We know there are two good teams at the top of the table [ion8 Forfarshire and Mazars Grange], but we will concentrate on ourselves and see where it gets us.”

Second-placed Grange set themselves up nicely for this coming weekend’s top-of-the table clash with Forfarshire with a comfortable victory over RH Corstorphine.

Dylan Budge hit a fine 124 not out and George Munsey blasted 80 from just 40 balls as the hosts posted 312-4 at Portgower Place. RHC could only manage 192 all out in reply.

Heriot’s are third after a three-wicket win over Stoneywood/Dyce, while there were mixed results on the road for Watsonians and Stewart’s Melville.

Mike Carson’s 98 inspired ‘Sonians to a 57 run triumph at Arbroath, but Stew-Mel lost losing at Forfarshire.