Inverclyde Now Logo CRICKET — Greenock’s Winning Streak Ends At Prestwick

22 July, 2019 | Local

Prestwick 229 for 6 wickets from 50 overs (25 points)

Greenock 143 all out after 45.4 overs (1 point)

GREENOCK’S recent run of good form was ended by the Premier Division’s second-top team, Prestwick, on Saturday when the Ayrshire side won comfortably by 86 runs.

The Glenpark side had travelled down the Clyde Coast with confidence following three consecutive wins but, having competed well for the first third of the match, the team performance dropped off in the remainder of the encounter and, by the end, Prestwick were very worthy winners.

With Stirling County defeating 2018 champions Ferguslie at Paisley and moving three places up the league table, Greenock dropped back down to eighth position and Poloc slipped to seventh as the battle to avoid relegation took another interesting turn. Fortunately for Greenock, both Drumpellier and East Kilbride, occupying the bottom two positions, also lost.

2019 Premier Division (after matches played on Sat 20 July)

Prestwick won the toss and opted to bat, but got off to the worst possible start as Greenock made an early breakthrough when Jonathan Hempsey bowled the Ayrshire side’s top batsman Fazal Jawad in just the second over of the match before he had got off the mark. And when a second Prestwick wicket went down with just six runs on the board in the fifth over with Fraser Macdonald being clean bowled by Saurabh Bandekar, the Greenock team were in jubilant mood.

But the joy was only short-lived as opening batsman Mitchell Rao and number four batsman, former professional Sachin Chaudhar, settled in to a good partnership which yielded 82 runs before the third wicket fell. Chaudhary was the man to go trapped leg before wicket (LBW) by Chirag Pandher for 37. A fourth wicket was captured just five runs later when Rao was out caught by Sehmat Pandher off the bowling of his brother Chirag, having scored 39 runs.

A good middle-order partnership of 34 runs from Tom Fleet and overseas amateur Tom Lord took Prestwick to 127 in the 39th over before Lord (8) was caught by Rod Mountford to give Chirag Pandher his third wicket of the innings. With just under 12 overs remaining to be bowled in the Prestwick innings, Greenock looked to be in a good position to contain the Ayrshire side to under 200 runs at the end of their 50 overs.

No further wicket had fallen when Prestwick reached 176 at the end of the 45th over and only five overs were still to be bowled. But it was at this point that the game turned away from Greenock and into Prestwick’s favour. Fleet and Singh went for broke and smashed 53 runs from the final five overs with Singh being run out for 32 in the last over of the innings.

However, it was Fleet who was the toast of the Prestwick team with a magnificent unbeaten innings of 92 which took the home side to a very commendable total of 229 for the loss of 6 wickets at the tea interval. Chirag Pandher with three wickets for 35 runs from 10 overs bowled was Greenock’s top bowler of the afternoon with pro Saurabh Bandekar and Jonathan Hempsey each taking a wicket and there was one run-out.

Needing to score at a rate of just under five runs per over, Greenock made a very slow start and had managed to put just 16 runs on the board from the first ten overs of the innings. But no wickets had been lost and by the end of the 16th over the total had moved along to 40.

Prestwick got their first wicket when Shailesh Prabhu was bowled by Lord for 14 in the 17th over and that brought together Zac Barranechea and Saurabh Bandekar. But Barranechea (23) was trapped LBW just ten runs later and that was the beginning of a poor spell for Greenock as none of the remaining middle-order batsmen were able to lend any real support to the team’s Indian professional Bandekar.

Rod Mountford, young Cammy Calder, Jonathan Hempsey, Chirag Pandher and Sehmat Pandher all came and went having personally contributed very few runs, and no partnerships of any size, to leave the team struggling on 102 for the loss of 7 wickets in the 35th over.

A 40-run partnership from the next ten overs between Bandekar and Chris Hempsey provided a glimmer of hope that Greenock might at least get reasonably close to the Prestwick total and gain some valuable bonus points.

But Bandekar perished in the 43rd over when he was caught by wicketkeeper Fleet for 63 from the bowling of Tom Lord with the score on 142 and that signalled the end for Greenock. Chris Hempsey was stumped by Fleet off the bowling of Sachin Chaudhary for 13 in the 44th over and the innings ended in the 46th over when Sean Fischer-Keogh was last wicket to fall with the total on 143.

Fraser Macdonald with 3 wickets for 36 runs was the Prestwick team’s top wicket-taker, with Lord, Chaudhary and Morrison picking up two wickets each.

Greenock Cricket Club is sponsored by Cleaning Supplies 4U

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