GREENOCK face Western Premiership Two league leaders Kelburne on Saturday.
The Paisley side are unbeaten having played six matches and won all six, while Greenock have won just two out of their five matches completed.
The statistics would suggest this will be another win for Kelburne, but Greenock can look back at each of their three losses and consider themselves, to some extent, unfortunate not to have gained a win on each occasion.
At Dumfries on week two of the league campaign, the Glenpark team were close to bowling out the home side, now in second position, in a low-scoring match. Then two weeks ago at Kilmarnock, the home team’s opening bat Adrian Maritz with 95 runs single-handedly got his team to a win while no other batter made any real impression. And last week, at Glenpark, wet weather intervened and visitors East Renfrewshire gained a win thanks to the Duckworth Lewis Stern (DLS) system while still some distance from overtaking the Greenock total.
Kelburne have batted first on three occasions and scored 187 for 9 (Langside), 207 for 7 (Irvine) and 265 for 4 (Glasgow Accies) and then bowled out their opposition for a low score.
When bowling/fielding first, the Paisley side has been just as clinical. Renfrew were bowled out for 110, Hillhead were 55 all out and, in the top-of-the-table clash two weeks ago, Dumfries were dismissed for just 78.
Top batter Sheldon Van Wyk sits second top of the Western Premiership Two batting stats with a top score of 97 and with a total of 235 runs scored. His South African compatriot Juan Steyn is second top of the bowling stats with 16 wickets and a best of 4 for 14.
Kelburne are also a very useful bowling side. Steyn along with Ahmed Raza-Hanif (formerly Renfrew CC), Lucas Farndale (formerly Hillhead CC), Joseph Silvin, Mohammad Zain and the evergreen former Greenock player Dougie Wylie provide an attack which has torn through opposition teams in the first six weeks of the league programme.
Greenock’s batting last Saturday had to show some resilience after a poor start to the innings. For once, both of the club’s overseas amateurs failed to be the mainstay of the batting line-up and it was Shailesh Prabhu, in particular, who stepped up with a patiently constructed half-century to enable a reasonably competitive score of 172 for 7 to be achieved after having been 26 for 4. Prabhu was supported by Sam Sanghera (18) and Ewan Stewart (26 not out). Usman Mansoor also had a quickfire 12 not out, at the end of the innings.
The team will have to do without Prabhu who is unavailable through work commitments. But back into the side come Harry Briggs and Cammy Calder.
The team will be: GJ McDougall (capt), HR Briggs, C Calder, PJ Bryceland, U Mansoor, CJ Nowlan, CS Pandher, AS Sanghera, SS Sanghera, E Stewart, AS Tolhurst. The match will start at noon.
Greenock’s 2nd XI Glenpark play Galloway 2nd XI at Glenpark on Saturday afternoon at noon. The team will be M Ahmad (Capt), S Bumanwala, Z Dilsoz, F Dinarkhel, S Hussain, I Khan, A Kochai, E Norris, P Robertson, D Sharma, H Safi
Midweek Successes
On Wednesday evening, Greenock defeated Renfrew at their Dean Park ground in a McCulloch Cup sectional match. Batting first, Renfrew scored 95 all out, from their 20 overs with Chirag Pandher taking four wickets for just 10 runs. Greenock made the worst start possible losing a wicket with the first ball. However, thereafter it was all Greenock as runs flowed and the target of 96 was reached after just 12.2 overs. Angus Tolhurst 44 not out, Chirag Pandher 27 and Aryan Sanghera 16 not out were the run scorers for Greenock.
On Tuesday evening, the Glenpark XI gained an impressive win over Renfrew 2nd XI (Dean Park) in a Western Cup sectional match. Dean Park batted first and scored 132 for the loss of eight wickets but the Glenpark XI were victorious, scoring 133 for the loss of just two wickets with Inam Khan 56 not out, Abdullah Maroof Kochai 27 and Eddie Ahmad 21 not out.
Greenock Cricket Club is sponsored by Cleaning Supplies 4U
