Mearns CC 168 all out from 39.1 overs (1 Point)
Greenock 169 for 4 from 38.4 overs (25 Points)
GREENOCK avoided relegation from the Western Premiership Two by defeating Mearns CC at Stirling on the last day of the season.
Having struggled to find good form for much of the summer, excellent wins from the last two league matches provided Greenock with what was a great escape. And when the team and supporters arrived back a Glenpark on Saturday evening, it was music from the iconic 1960s film The Great Escape which welcomed their return.
On an afternoon with so much at stake for both teams, Greenock put in a top performance and gained an excellent six-wicket win which retained their place, but which condemned Mearns to relegation.
The hosts had got off to a flying start, scoring 65 runs from the first eight overs without the loss of a wicket. But in the ninth over, Cameron Calder captured the wickets of both Mearns opening batsmen who had been scoring well. Akshay Hudar was caught by Chirag Pandher off the first ball of the over for 23. And Rahul Jagdale was clean-bowled with the fourth ball, having scored 33 runs.
The brisk eight-runs-an-over run-rate was pinned back following the loss of the opening batters and by the end of the 16th over, the scoreboard had only moved on to 85 with the loss of one further wicket, Simon Machado caught Jamie Nowell, bowled Toby Matthews for seven.
Mahmood Ahmadzai was brought in to the bowling attack at the start of the 21st over and, with his very first ball, removed Ketan Sharma, caught-and-bowled for 12 runs, to make it 102 for four.
Mearns progressed to 141 for five by the end of 30 overs but lost the wicket of Rohitabja Haldar.
Greenock then took control of the match when Ewan Stewart was introduced into the bowling attack for the 31st over and, with his first ball, removed top-scoring batsman Rajat Dhar. The Mearns batter was caught by Chirag Pandher for 36 with the score 141 for six wickets.
The remaining four Mearns wickets added just 27 runs before the innings ended on 168 all-out at the start of the 41st over. The last wicket fell with the first ball of Cammy Calder’s second spell when he clean-bowled Deepak Kumar.
For Greenock, Calder took three for 20, Matthews three for 29 and Stewart three for 15.
Greenock chose to open with Jamie Nowell and Chirag Pandher, a partnership which had provided a successful start against Hillhead a couple of weeks previously.
Once again, Nowell and Pandher provided a sound start to the innings scoring 29 runs from the first six overs before Pandher was beaten by Sagan Sumar and bowled for 24.
Adam McGuirk joined Nowell and the pair maintained the necessary four-runs-per-over run-rate without any alarms until Nowell played back to a ball from right-arm off-spinner Deepak Kumar and was bowled for 13 with the scoreboard showing 60 for two after 15 overs.
The loss of the second wicket brought team captain Toby Matthews out to join McGuirk and created a key partnership as Greenock sought to keep up the scoring rate and put pressure on the Mearns bowling.
However, in the 21st over with the score on 80, McGuirk failed to make contact with an attempted sweep shot to the leg-side and was given out leg-before-wicket to Kumar having scored 21.
A fourth wicket went down on 111 just as the partnership between Matthews and Shailesh Prabhu looked as though it would take the team further along the road to the win which Greenock needed.
But in came Cammy Calder and he provided some excellent shots alongside Matthews who was playing a fine innings of his own. The pair built the best partnership of the innings (58) and quite quickly scored the runs which propelled Greenock to their winning target.
Matthews was top-scorer with 52 not out, while Calder was 32 not-out when the winning target was reached in the 39th over.
The result showed a comfortable win for Greenock, following possibly the team’s best overall performance of the season.
Greenock Cricket Club is sponsored by The Ethos Group
