1st XI easily beaten by Stenhousemuir

Greenock 1st XI vs Stenhousemuir
WDCU CSL First Division
Saturday 24th May 2014

Scorecard       

On Saturday at Glenpark, Greenock put in a very poor performance against Stenhousemuir who over the last couple of seasons have become the local side’s bogey team. Batting first, the Glenparkers got off to a reasonably sound start with openers Shailesh Prabhu and Neil Flack seemingly in good form and in little trouble. However with 31 runs on the scoreboard in the eleventh over Prabhu (17) was well caught by South African wicketkeeper Pono from the bowling of Nick Lister.

Flack became Lister’s second victim of the afternoon just eight runs later when he presented a catching chance to Chris Halcrow, which the Stennie player gratefully accepted.

Just two more runs were added to take the score to forty one runs before further calamity befell Greenock. Firstly, overseas amateur Dwight Thomas was run out without scoring and then Mark Crichton was adjudged LBW to Yasar Arafat also without scoring. 41 for 4 in the 16th over.

A partnership of thirty runs from Chris Hempsey and Harry Briggs was looking like putting Greenock back on track before Hempsey (9) was bowled by Iain McDonald. Briggs (18) departed just seven runs later, caught by Rushdi Jappie off the bowling of McDonald and almost immediately Aussie Tom Batters was bowled by veteran Bob Angus. 78 for 7 in the 31st over.

The Glenpark batting tail-end failed to save what was a poor batting performance and only a further thirteen runs were added to the Greenock total as the last three wickets fell to leave the local side all out for 91. For Stenhousemuir, Iain McDonald and Bob Angus returned identical bowling analysis of 3 wickets for 10 runs.

The Stirlingshire side had an early setback when opening batsman Akash Rawal was trapped LBW by Jonathan Hempsey in the fourth over. However, thereafter Stenhousemuir were in the driving seat and South African opening bat Soysile Pono in particular took the game away from Greenock. A second wicket was captured by the Glenparkers with the score on 65 when Shahzad was bowled by Tom Batters after he had scored a fine 33 runs.

The remaining runs for victory were duly scored by Pono (not out 42) and Jappie (not out 7) and Greenock's miserable afternoon was brought to an end in just the 23rd over.