1st XI after another win when they play Clydesdale
The 1st XI travel to Glasgow's south side on Saturday to play Clydesdale at their Titwood ground which is often home to Scotland internationals. The 2021 Premier Division champions and three times WDCU Premier champions since 2015 are in an unfamiliar league position this season and currently occupy fourth bottom position.
The team's journey up the M8 will be made with increased confidence after their win over Prestwick last weekend and with the knowledge that Clydesdale are far from invincible this season.
However, it may be that Richie Berrington, who is Scotland's international captain and the country's most capped cricketer, is available to play for Clydesdale this Saturday.
Berrington has only played four league matches for Clydesdale this season due to his international commitments. Most recently he captained Scotland's T20 team in winning the ICC Men's T20 World Cup Europe Qualifier with the team unbeaten in their six matches to progress to the T20 World Cup Finals in the West Indies and USA in 2024.
The Clydesdale and Scotland man is a former Greenock player and still lives in the town close to Glenpark where he began his career as a junior and moved through the age group teams before playing for the 1st XI. He transferred to Clydesdale in 2014.
The Titwood team have clearly missed Berrington's playing contributions and relied heavily on current team captain Craig Young. The former Poloc player is their top run-scorer with almost 450 runs in the Premiership, 759 runs in all matches and with a top score of 101 not out against Arbroath United in the Scottish Cup.
Last Saturday, Clydesdale lost to bottom team Dumfries at their Nunholm ground. In a high scoring game in which Clydesdale batted first, a 139 run sixth wicket partnership between Craig Young (92) and Nikhil Kuteeswaran 65 not out helped the Glasgow southsiders to a total of 224. But this was not enough as Dumfries made 225 for the loss of just 4 wickets.
The Titwood side have had a very up and down season. There has been a lack of consistency in both their batting and bowling. Five times the team has been dismissed for under 150 runs and on numerous occasions opposition sides have made large scores against them. Stenhousemuir scored 315 for 4 in mid-June and Ferguslie made 200 without losing a wicket chasing Clydesdale's 197 for 6 also in June.
One of Clydesdale's four wins came against Greenock at Glenpark at the beginning of June. Batting first Clydesdale scored 215 for 8 and the 1st XI were looking good to win during a fine third wicket partnership between Tom Polkinghorne and Rahul Dalal which produced over 100 runs.
But once Polkinghorne (40) and Dalal (71) were dismissed, the rest of the batting crumbled to 182 all out and an opportunity to win was lost.
While Richie Berrington may return to play for Clydesdale, international commitments mean that the 1st XI's talented young cricketer Lukas Fischer-Keogh will definitely be missing from the side on Saturday.
Lukas is selected as a member of the 14 player squad to represent Scotland Under-19s in the ICC Men's Under-19 World Cup Europe Qualifiers taking place in the Netherlands from Sunday 6 August until Saturday 12 August.
The winning side from the competition will play in the World Cup in Sri Lanka in 2024.
The absence of Fischer-Keogh means Chris Hempsey returns into the team as a direct replacement wicket-keeper/batsman. The selected team shows just one other change with Nikhil Kadyan returning in place of Chirag Pandher who is unavailable due to work commitments.
The form of two of the top order batsmen, Tom Polkinghorne and Harry Briggs, was a big plus last Saturday at Prestwick. The pair put on 98 runs for the second wicket with Polkinghorne scoring 62 and Briggs 54. Their partnership created a sound platform for the team to make a big score and then go on to win the game.
It is good partnerships such as that built by Polkinghorne and Briggs last weekend which the team will seek to achieve against Clydesdale. And if batting first, it will be important to use up all fifty of the overs available for the team's innings.
If a big total can be scored, somewhere in excess of 200, then bowling options for team captain Greg McDougall will be greater when the opposition bat.
A few early wickets such as were gained last Saturday against Prestwick can unsettle the opposition and confidence can dip significantly.
McDougall will have seven or eight players whom he can call upon to bowl and will most likely open up with some pace bowling from Gregor Chambers and Sam Sanghera. Thereafter, some off spin bowling from pro Rahul Dalal and Nikhil Kadyan may be introduced to provide a different approach.
And, of course, there is McDougall himself who can bowl. He has picked up 14 wickets so far in the Premiership and he is always a useful change to bring into the bowling attack.
So the team can go into Saturday's match against Clydesdale with some confidence, and with a good all round performance some more important points can be won as the team seeks to rise up the league table and retain its place in the Premiership for another season.
The match will start at 12 noon as usual.
The Glenpark XI welcome local rivals Inverclyde to Glenpark on Saturday. The selected side will be keen to build on last week's performance, when they pushed league leaders Woodfarm all the way, and will look to do the double over the opponents who will be equally keen to ensure that this doesn't happen. The match is scheduled to start at 12 noon.
On Sunday, the Hillend XI travel to Glasgow to play a West of Scotland XI at Hamilton Crescent. This is their last game of what has been a season that, unlike the Saturday fixtures, has been blighted by bad weather. Fingers are crossed then for better luck this Sunday. A youthful-looking side, captained by Sudeeep Chaudhary, has been chosen for the game which is scheduled to start at 1pm.
The Club is grateful for the continued sponsorship from Cleaning Supplies 4U.
