The 1st XI face tough task at league leaders Ayr

Buoyed up by last weekend's win over Dumfries, the 1st XI travel to meet top of the table Ayr at their picturesque ground New Cambusdoon in Alloway. It is a top versus bottom match, but the Ayrshire side are not invincible and they will feel that with a good team performance a positive result can be secured.

Key to last weekend's important win was another fine batting performance from Indian professional Rahul Dalal. He scored an unbeaten 74 runs from just 54 balls faced and took his season's tally of runs in the Western Premiership One to 538 with an average score of 89.67.

Only Michael English of Ayr has scored more runs in the Western Premiership One. The former Ferguslie player, who is an amateur and has been at Ayr for the past few seasons, has amassed 759 runs.

Neil Flack, the former 1st XI captain who transferred to Ayr at the beginning of season 2022, is sixth highest run scorer with 329 runs.

Table toppers Ayr had a fine first half of the season with their only defeat coming against West of Scotland, a team which the 1st XI beat earlier in the season at Hamilton Crescent in Glasgow.

When the teams met at Glenpark on the second Saturday of the season, the visitors ran out winners by 113 runs, Ayr scoring 266 for 7 and the 1st XI replying with 153 for 9. A very comfortable victory for the New Cambusdoon side and a disappointing performance from the team.

Michael English and Namibean professional Jan Frylinck were the matchwinners for Ayr. English scored 69 while Frylinck coming in at number 5 in the batting line-up top scored with a superb 91, his highest score of the season to date.

The 1st XI had no one able to really get going with the bat and former player Flack finished with the best bowling figures for Ayr with 3 wickets for 19 runs from his 10 overs.

The New Cambusdoon team rely a great deal on English and Flack getting their innings off to a sound start and then going on to score plenty of runs. Dismissing either or both early would be a big boost for the side on Saturday.

But there are others such as Frylinck and Michael Miller who could do damage with the bat and who must also be targetted.

The selected eleven that skipper Greg McDougall will field this Saturday shows some changes to the side which gained the win against Dumfries last weekend. Unavailable are Harry Briggs, Jonathan Hempsey and Usman Mansoor while into the side come, Chirag Pandher, Sam Sanghera and Ewan Stewart.

This line-up shows five changes to the one which played against Ayr earlier in the season and it is a more experienced side. Shailesh Prabhu is available and likely to open the innings with either Tom Polkinghorne or Lukas Fischer-Keogh.

Prabhu has got his innings going on a number of occasions this season but not managed to push on as often as he would wish. He knows the Ayr ground well and will hope to contribute serious runs on Saturday.

Polkinghorne did well as an opener in the first few matches of the season but then due to work commitments had his good form interrupted. He is a solid opening bat who likes to take his time at the start of the innings. In recent weeks he has shown signs of the form which could help provide a solid base for the innings.

Fischer-Keogh, who is in the Under-19 Scottish 2023 squad, has shown that he has the potential to be a very useful top order batsman as well as being the team wicketkeeper. He has the confidence to take on opposition bowlers and score quickly which can put early pressure on opposition bowlers. At the same time he is gaining experience by regularly batting alongside club pro Rahul Dalal.

The importance of Dalal in the line-up is significant. As well as the runs he contributes himself, he helps develop others with whom he spends time out in the middle.

Nikhil Kadyan made a promising debut against Dumfries and formed a good batting partnership with Dalal which produced 58 runs. He then bowled six overs of left arm spin for just 26 runs which also demonstrated that he will be a fine all rounder for the team.

And all rounder Gregor Chambers has featured in several good partnerships with Dalal. Another on Saturday would be welcome for the team.

Thebowling, which is spearheaded by Chambers, will need to be accurate and well managed by team McDougall. He will have numerous options, but all his bowlers need to ensure that wides and other extras are kept to an absolute minimum.

New Cambusdoon is a ground with a wicket which often produces high scoring matches. But the team will hope to curb the often free scoring form of the Ayr top order while at the same time try to ensure that their own batsmen can find ways to produce enough runs to overcome the league leaders.

Saturday's match will be a good test for the players following the boost to their morale and confidence gained from the victory over Dumfries. If they show focus and application throughout the match, there just might be a result which brings back useful points to Glenpark.

As usual, the match will start at 12 noon.

The Glenpark XI had no match last weekend for the second week in a row as their opponents, Blackhill, conceded the fixture, being unable to raise a side. They will therefore be very keen for this week's match at Glenpark against Galloway 2nd XI to go ahead and skipper Eddie Ahmad leads a strong-looking team. He will want to win the toss to get his batsmen some time at the crease against a team whom they comfortably defeated when they met earlier in season. The match starts at 12 noon.

On Sunday, the Hillend XI will try again to play their first game of the season when they travel to Meikleriggs in Paisley to take on a Ferguslie Development XI in a friendly game, starting at 1pm. On the three previous occasions that the team have tried to play the weather has got the better of them each time. Aryan Sanghera is the skipper for the day on Sunday and the selected team that he leads is a good mixture of youth and experience which will hope for better luck with the weather this time.

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