Greenock 96 for 2 wickets after 17.2 over (25 points)
Mearns CC 93 all out after 33.2 overs (0 points)
GREENOCK reached the half-way point in the Western Premiership Two league programme with an important victory over Mearns at Glenpark.
The win moved the local team up to sixth place in the league table.
Mearns were quickly on the back foot as three early wickets left them on 14 for 3 inside the first four overs. First wicket to fall was Simon Machado bowled by Mahmood Ahmadzai in the second over. Then in the third over, Ketan Sharma was beaten by the pace of Fahim Dinarkhiel and had his stumps knocked back.
One over further on and Ahmadzai collected his second wicket when new batsman Rohitabja Haldar was trapped leg before wicket for just one run.
A partnership of 29 runs between Rajat Dhar and Naman Sangari steadied the visitors’ innings for a while. But Greenock regained their early initiative when Sangari was bowled by Cameron Calder in the 16th over. And that wicket was swiftly followed in the 17th over when Dinarkhiel had Anulome Kishore caught by Greg McDougall at cover.
The Mearns score of 45 for the loss of five wickets soon became 58 for 7 as Greenock took more and more control of the game. Firstly, Sagar Suman was clean-bowled by Cammy Calder and then top-scorer Rajat Dhar (30) was removed when Greg McDougall took a second catch at cover, this time from the bowling of Toby Matthews.
Greenock kept up the pressure on the Mearns tail-end batters and the innings ended in the 34th over when last man Prasad Patnaik was run out with the score on 93.
Fahim Dinarkhiel with 2 for 19 from 10 overs, Mahmood Ahmadzai with 2 for 16 from 4 overs and Cameron Calder 2 for 22 from 8 overs were the leading wicket-takers.
After the tea interval, Greenock raced to a deserved and comfortable win inside just 18 overs.
Usman Mansoor and Cameron Calder provided a sound start to the run-chase with a carefully compiled 60 runs from the first 14 overs. The partnership was ended with the winning target just a little more than 30 runs away when Calder was caught off the bowling of Deepak Kumar for 20.
And it was Kumar who also picked up the wicket of Mansoor in the 16th over when the opening batsman was stumped by wicket-keeper Rajat Dhar for an excellent 37 runs.
Only a further 20 runs were needed when Mansoor was dismissed and the team’s two Aussie amateurs Toby Matthews and Adam McGuirk made short work of scoring the runs to take the team to victory. McGuirk announced his intentions immediately, by smashing Kumar for a maximum ‘six’ followed by a boundary from his first two balls at the crease.
And it took only 12 balls after Mansoor’s departure for the win to be wrapped up as McGuirk, in particular, plundered the Mearns bowling. He finished the match in style by dispatching the second ball of the 18th over to the boundary to loud applause from the Greenock supporters.
This was a most emphatic win for Greenock with 32 overs remaining to be bowled and with eight wickets in hand.
Meanwhile an understrength Greenock 2nd XI Glenpark lost heavily to Hamilton Crescent in their league fixture on Saturday at Stirling. The side was all out for just 49 with team captain, Eddie Ahmad, scoring a battling 21 from 64 balls faced. Their opponents wasted little time in knocking off the runs to record the easiest of victories.
On Sunday, Greenock’s senior XI played the XL Club in a friendly at Glenpark which drew a good-sized crowd. The very enjoyable encounter was won by the XL Club by just over 60 runs.
Greenock Cricket Club is sponsored by The Ethos Group
