CRICKET — Slimmest Of Chances Of Greenock Staying In Premier LeagueGREENOCK face West of Scotland at their Hamilton Crescent ground on Saturday.
With West sitting comfortably in mid-table and only three rounds of fixtures remaining in the league season, there is nothing at stake for them. But for Greenock there remains the slimmest of chances of Premier Division survival.
Three wins from the last three matches is the club’s only hope, but that also depends on relegation contenders Poloc and Dumfries losing all of their final matches.
Realists will not being expecting that to happen as Greenock have won only one league match all season and have still to play Premier Division leaders Clydesdale at Titwood and top five-placed Stirling County at Glenpark.
West of Scotland however are the only team against whom the Glenparkers have triumphed this season.
West’s league stats show four wins and eight defeats, however, the Partick side have also managed to pick up a total of 41 bonus points, which is approaching the equivalent of two more wins.
On five occasions their batsmen have built totals in excess of 200 runs and only once has the side failed to score at least 100 runs in an innings. And on five occasions their bowlers have managed to bowl out the opposition within 50 overs.
Runs for West can flow from a number of batsmen in their side with no fewer than six different players having scored at least one fifty during the season. In particularly fine form have been Andy Hislop and James Fennah, both of whom have scored more than 300 runs in the Premier Division during the summer.
Gavin Smith tops the wicket-taking for West with 21 to date. And Calum Dutia is a close second with 20 while several other players regularly form a bowling attack which has served the side well.
When the two sides met at Glenpark at the start of July, Greenock gained their only Premier Division win of the season to date by defeating West in an exciting finish.
The visitors posted 186 for the loss of nine wickets from their 50 overs, but with the Duckworth Lewis Stern (DLS) system in play because of a rain delay, Greenock reached the revised target of 178 in 45 overs with just one ball remaining.
This weekend, Greenock are again unable to field as strong a side as they might like. Neil Flack and Jamie Nowell, who got the Greenock innings of to a sound start in the July match awith a partnership of 81, are both unavailable as is Harry Briggs.
Sean Fischer-Keogh and Gregor Chambers will, as usual, lead the bowling attack and seek to put some early dents in the West batting line-up. The two pace bowlers have had a good season picking up close to 40 wickets in total.
Captain Greg McDougall will be one of the back up bowlers along with Sam Sanghera, Chirag Pandher and Ewan Stewart.
The batting line-up may be quite problematic. McDougall will likely look to Shailesh Prabhu to open the innings, but with no other recognised opening batsman in the squad for Saturday, who will partner him at the top of the order is one for the captain to ponder.
Prabhu gained a confidence boosting 113 not out in a friendly match last weekend and will look to take that forward for the match at Hamilton Crescent on Saturday.
With the season in its final few weeks, the match at Hamilton Crescent is an opportunity for Greenock to salvage some pride from what has been a difficult and disappointing Premier Division campaign.
Greenock’s team will include GJ McDougall (capt), GM Chambers, S Chaudhary, LC Fischer-Keogh, SK Fischer-Keogh, CS Pandher, SS Prabhu, SS Sanghera, A Sanghera, E Stewart, Scorer: R McGregor.
The Greenock 2nd XI (Glenpark) play Vale of Leven on Saturday afternoon. The team for the Division Three league game is likely to be: J Hutchinson, M Ahmad, PJ Bryceland, A Calder, P Hempsey, F MacFeate, U Mansoor, E Norris, C Prabhu, PE Robertson, N Stanton,
Greenock Cricket Club is sponsored by Cleaning Supplies 4U
