CRICKET — Greenock Determined Not To Falter Against Poloc

21 July, 2022 | Sport

GREENOCK hope to continue their good form on Saturday against Poloc in Glasgow.

The side has not had a good record at Shawholm in recent years — their last six league games at the ground have all ended in defeat, sometimes by quite large margins.

But things should be different this time. Both teams were relegated from the Premier Division at the end of last season but, while Greenock have regrouped and made a strong bid for promotion back to the top level, Poloc have struggled.

They are currently embroiled in a relegation tussle with three other clubs and, with three teams to be relegated, only one of them will play in the First Division next season.

Poloc will therefore be desperate for victory on Saturday but their season so far has delivered only two wins and they have suffered some heavy defeats, especially against the stronger teams.

For their part, Greenock cannot contemplate defeat if they wish to maintain their place in the promotion battle. With their two rivals, Stenhousemuir and Kilmarnock, having winnable home fixtures on Saturday, the pressure is on Greenock to maintain their winning run.

Poloc this year have no overseas assistance and some of their key players have moved on to other clubs. These personnel changes have been the main reason for Poloc’s struggles this season. Although there have been signs in recent games that their batting has improved, they have had problems all season with containing opposition batsmen.

Greenock have clearly benefited from the presence of their two young Australians, Tom Nicholson and Ryan Walker, with both featuring amongst the top batsmen and bowlers in the league. The confidence of having these two players in the team has spread to the rest of the players, especially the younger ones, with Harry Briggs and Lukas Fischer-Keogh in particular showing a pronounced improvement with the bat.

A final selection for the match has still to be made but it will come from this 12-man squad: GJ McDougall (capt), HR Briggs, CS Calder, GM Chambers, LC Fischer-Keogh, CJK Hempsey, TJ Nicholson, JM Nowell, CS Pandher, A Sanghera, EA Stewart, RA Walker. Scorer: R McGregor

The match will start at noon.

The Glenpark XI, Greenock’s second string, are at home this week to The Tryst, Stenhousemuir’s 2nd XI.

Last week, it looked as if the side would defend their total of 115 when playing against Inverclyde but their old failing of conceding too many extras reared its head again in the last few overs and brought about defeat.

At the time of writing, the team to face The Tryst is J Janampally (capt), M Ahmad, S Chaudhary, A Fielding, N Kosuri, N Kuwar, N Nagaraju, E Norris, PE Robertson, H Safi, DC Sharma.

Greenock Cricket Club is sponsored by Cleaning Supplies 4U

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