Greenock 127 all out after 38 overs (0 points)
Uddingston 128 for 1 after 24.2 overs (25 points)
RELEGATION-threatened Greenock suffered a nine-wicket defeat to second-top Uddingston.
The team’s openers, Cammy Calder and Avishek Neupane, made a decent start in the away match, scoring 23 runs off the first six overs. But Calder fell to the first ball of the seventh over when he was caught by Ross Wilson from the bowling of home team captain Tom Willmott.
Neupane and Shailesh Prabhu continued to score steadily and by the end of the 14th over had progressed the Greenock score to 55. Left-arm, slow bowler Ross Lyons removed Neupane for 25 midway through the 15th over.
And with just eight more runs added to the score, Lyons picked up two more wickets in consecutive balls — Greenock’s Australian amateurs Adam McGuirk and Toby Matthews — at the start of the 17th over. This left Greenock on 63 for 4.
The experienced pairing of Shailesh Prabhu and Chirag Pandher got together and brought Greenock back into the game by adding 24 runs from the next five overs. But the partnership ended when Ross Wilson took his second catch of the match to remove Prabhu for 22 with the first ball of the 22nd over.
Pandher and Muhibullah Ahmadzai added 15 runs in a sixth-wicket partnership. But when Ahmadzai provided Ross Lyons with his fourth wicket, caught and bowled for 14 to make it 102 for 6 wickets, Greenock were in deep trouble.
Only a further 25 runs got added in the 13 overs that followed. Pandher was dismissed for 13 runs just three balls after Ahmadzai was removed and then only Greg McDougall (14) batting at number 10 put up any fight as Greenock were bowled out at the end of the 38th over.
For Uddingston, Ross Lyons with five wickets for 27 runs, was the Lanarkshire side’s top performer.
In reply, Uddingston took just 24.2 overs to score the runs to give them victory. Their only alarm came very early in the innings when opening bat Simon Umeed was dismissed, caught for just three runs, off the last ball of the fourth over which was bowled by Fahim Dinarkheil.
Fergus Clark (48 not out) and Amaan Ramzan (47 not out) guided Uddingston to a very comfortable win which keeps them in second-top position behind league leaders Kilmarnock.
So, with just five league fixtures remaining, Greenock must somehow win two, or perhaps three, of these games, if they are to survive in the Western Premiership Two division.
Greenock’s 2ndXI Glenpark were also well beaten on Saturday at home to Ferguslie 2nd XI Meikleriggs. The Paisley side batted first and amassed 181 for six while the Glenpark team could only score 62 runs before being bowled out.
Greenock Cricket Club is sponsored by The Ethos Group
