Greenock 109 all out after 41.3 overs (3 points}
Kilmarnock 110 for 5 wickets after 17.3 overs (25 points)
GREENOCK’S run of poor results continued when the team lost to league leaders Kilmarnock.
The result, while disappointing, was perhaps not too unexpected given the team’s form.
It will be the last three matches of the league programme which will ultimately define the season, as they involve Greenock playing against the other three teams who are fighting to avoid relegation.
This Saturday, Greenock play bottom side Hillhead at Glenpark, then the final two matches are against Helensburgh and Mearns which are both away from home. A minimum of two wins from the three matches will likely be needed to avoid the drop.
The trip to face Kilmarnock was always going to be a difficult afternoon for the Glenpark side and so it proved, with Greenock’s poor batting form once again leading to the team’s downfall.
A new opening partnership of Jamie Nowell and Greg McDougall was sent out to try and get a decent start to the innings. The pair worked hard and produced the best partnership of the afternoon by putting on 33 runs by the end of the first ten overs.
However, early in the 11th over Nowell was given out leg-before-wicket (LBW) for 11. And just five overs later Shailesh Prabhu (5) provided a catch to Adam Wilson from the bowling of Zeeshan Qamar to put Greenock two wickets down for 42 runs.
Greenock’s batters were unable to make much headway from some tight bowling by the Kilmarnock attack and, when the third wicket fell in the 24th over, the Glenparkers had only managed to reach 66. McDougall was the player out bowled by Zeeshan Qamar for 10.
At the mid-point, with just three wickets down, Greenock might have hoped to move up a gear and add at least a further 100 runs in the 26 overs which remained. But that would have been a forlorn hope as wickets continued to be lost with few runs being added.
Adam McGuirk (18) provided a catch to Paul Flanagan off the bowling of Inderjit Singh with the score on 75, and two overs later new batter Chirag Pandher gave Singh his second wicket to leave Greenock toiling on 79 for 5.
Stand-in captain Toby Matthews and the experienced Rod Mountford looked to be developing a decent sixth wicket partnership with 21 runs added in six overs. But with the scoreboard showing exactly 100 towards the end of the 37th over, Matthews was given out LBW having scored 23 runs.
His dismissal signalled the beginning of the end as just a further nine runs were added for the loss of the remaining four wickets, the innings ending very disappointingly on 109 in the 42nd over.
The Killie batsmen made quick work of scoring the runs needed. With rain around, the league leaders scored at an average of a run a ball to win in the 18th over but having lost five wickets in the process.
Inderjit Singh top scored with 20 runs for Kilmarnock, while for Greenock, Muhibullah Ahmadzai picked up two wickets and Toby Matthews, Adam McGuirk and Mahmood Ahmadzai collected one wicket each.
The three points gained for having picked up five wickets could prove very important for Greenock, as the final matches will determine which two sides survive in the Western Premiership Two and which two sides will slide down into the Western Premiership Three.
Just seven percentage points separate the bottom four, with Greenock’s fate firmly in their own hands.
It was also a disappointing weekend for the Glenpark XI who lost to the Mearns 2nd XI (Mearns Challengers) by 45 runs at Glenpark on Saturday, and then had their match against Langside 2nd XI (Albert Park) on Sunday cancelled because of the heavy rain overnight on Saturday which continued into Sunday morning, leaving the Glenpark wicket and square soaking wet and unfit for play.
Greenock Cricket Club is sponsored by The Ethos Group
