More success for Skipper Sharma

Glenpark XI v Bothwell XI

The sun shone brightly for the Tall Ships in Greenock on Saturday so, for the first time this season, Glenpark had the luxury of playing a home game on a summer’s day! An injury to Mark Robertson meant that Dave Sharma was asked to skipper again. This weekend he had a much stronger team to lead to victory, but not everything went the home team’s way – starting with losing the toss.

Neil Flack opened with Shailesh Prabhu and, for the second week running, got the team off to a good start with a half-century stand. He was replaced by Phil McIntosh, who joined Shailesh for a superb second wicket partnership of 115 off 15 overs. Both players deservedly posted half-centuries and it looked as if they would put the game out of Bothwell’s reach, however Phil’s dismissal led to a swift decline for the second half of the innings. Alex Baum made batting look easy, but wickets fell regularly at the other end. Things came to an abrupt halt in the 46th over as Waleed Jamal played an inauspicious shot facing his second delivery for the club, being clean bowled and leaving Alex stranded at the other end. It was a respectable score of 239, but probably fifty less than would have been hoped for at the half-way stage.

Dave and debutante Waleed opened the bowling for Glenpark, both struggled with their line, though Dave did manage to remove both openers. Phil came on to replace Waleed after a couple of overs and also had early success. Waleed took over from Dave and seemed to find better control with the change of end. After their early wickets the Bothwell batsmen began to consolidate and reached twenty overs with no further losses. This prompted a double change as Kenny Diffenthal replaced Waleed and Greg McDougall replaced Phil, who was struggling with a calf injury. Although both bowled economically when Bothwell were looking to accelerate, it was Greg’s spell that turned the game. He bowled his ten overs straight through returning figures of 4-31. Jeeta Singh continued the good work as the visitors fell further and further behind the required rate. There was a sting in the tail as some lusty blows were struck by the ninth wicket pair, but Waleed then came back on to blast out the last two wickets. For once the bowlers were backed up in the field as no catches were dropped. Kenny took two excellent ones off hard hit shots, keeper Alex took a pair and Dave and Shailesh also chipped in with one apiece.

Again it was a pleasure to lead a team that fought hard, but maintained a good spirit. The win leaves Glenpark well placed in the table but, with the likes of Partick and Meikleriggs still ahead there is still a lot of work to do. Next week the team travels to Poloc – hopefully the police dogs won’t be training if the ball ends up in their territory!

Glenpark XI (12 pts) 239 (45.3 overs) SS Prabhu 65 PC McIntosh 59 AJL Baum 39*

Bothwell XI (5 pts) 191 (48.4 overs) N MacLeod 41 A Baxter 34 GJ McDougall 4 for 31

Glenpark XI Man of the Match:  A difficult choice this week. A fine partnership between Shailesh & Phil set up the win, Alex continued their good work, and kept wicket well with two catches, but I’m opting for Greg McDougall for his excellent bowling spell.

Scooby Award: Phil McIntosh - fought off hard competition from Jeeta but finally won out. He had earlier pointed out to Alex that he found the conventional sweep shot difficult, but was quite adept with the reverse sweep. He then attempted to demonstrate this during his innings, but only succeeded in taking the ball in his face!

scorecard

'The Snake'