1st XI in confident mood for visit to Langside

The 1st XI travel to the south side of Glasgow on Saturday for their Western Premiership Two league match against Langside at Albert Park. The team will travel with confidence after the eight wicket win over Glasgow Accies last weekend which put them into third top spot in the league table below Dumfries and Kelburne.

The momentum which has been built from the two wins over Hillhead and Glasgow Accies and the narrow loss to league leaders Dumfries must be kept going with a strong performance against Langside.

There are several teams who will fancy their chances at gaining promotion to the Western Premiership One at the end of the season, and so the side must continue to show good form at Albert Park against a team which is occupying third bottom position.

On the opening Saturday of the league programme, Langside travelled to play Kelburne in Paisley and were soundly beaten. The Whitehaugh team posted 187 for 9 from their 50 overs and then easilydismissed Langside for just 81 runs in 25.3 overs

A seven wicket win over bottom of the table Glasgow Accies followed for Langside on week two of the league programme. But at Marress on week three, the Glasgow southsiders were again well beaten, this time by Irvine who scored 188 and then bowled them out for 119 in 32.5 overs.

Batting second against Kelburne and Irvine, the Langside line-up failed to build any meaningful partnerships and were bowled out well short of the targets set.

Captain Greg McDougall will be aware of Langside's poor batting performances and will feel that he has a bowling attack which can inflict another difficult afternoon on the Glasgow south side team.

In Connor Nowlan and Angus Tolhurst, the team's two Australian amateurs, McDougall has a couple of bowlers who have provided plenty of problems for opposition batsmen in all games played so far this season. Tolhurst sits top of the Western Premiership Two bowling stats with 9 wickets while Nowlan has taken 8 wickets.

For Saturday's match, a couple of changes have been made to the team that easily defeated Glasgow Accies. Shailesh Prabhu is unavailable due to work commitments and Inam Khan drops down to the Glenpark XI. Returning to the side come Cammy Calder and Chirag Pandher.

Calder showed his ability with the bat in one of the pre-season matches when he top scored with a very fine 40 against Kelburne. If he can be patient at the start of his innings and get into a rhythm then he has the potential to make a big score.

Pandher can be a useful lower order bat where he can score some quick runs. But in his last match at Dumfries a couple of weeks ago, with the absence of experienced opener Shailesh Prabhu, he was used as an opening bat alongside Connor Nowlan. The tactic did not work and with Prabhu once again unavailable McDougall will have to decide who will open alongside Nowlan.

The two Australian amateurs have been hugely important to the team in the league matches to date. As well as their bowling contributions, both have scored well with the bat. Nowlan made 79 against Hillhead in the opening league match and has followed that with 37 at Dumfries and 68 not out against Accies last Saturday at Glenpark. He is in fine form.

Tolhurst with 21 not out joined Nowlan to finish off the match against Accies and prior to that was top scorer against Hillhead with 84.

Some others in the team are showing that they can make runs too. Harry Briggs contributed 20 runs in a lengthy partnership with Connor Nowlan last Saturday which produced 67 runs and at Dumfries the previous week Sam Sanghera put up a very stubborn resistance to the league leaders bowling with 28 not out.

Occupying the crease brings runs for individual batsmen which then translates into competitive and/or winning totals for the team. At Albert Park on Saturday afternoon a good all round team performance should provide a winning outcome and keep the side challenging at the top of the table.

The Glenpark XI have had a most frustrating time over the past ten days. Two midweek Western Cup games have fallen foul of the weather while last Saturday's league game was called off on a day which was just perfect for cricket when opponents Crow Road were unable to raise a side. Skipper Eddie Ahmad will therefore be desperate for this week's game against Glasgow Accies 3rd XI at Glenpark to go ahead, a feeling that will be shared by the rest of his team, one that looks good enough to record a second win of the season.

Both games will start as usual at 12 noon.

The Club is grateful for the continued sponsorship from Cleaning Supplies 4U.