Greenock meet top team Carlton in Scottish Cup clash at Grange Loan

Without a match since Saturday 9 June due to the mercilessly wet weather, Greenock travel through to Edinburgh on Saturday to play last season’s Premier League champions, Carlton, at Grange Loan in the second last of their Scottish Cup sectional games. Carlton currently top Section E with six points and Greenock are in second top spot with four points.

However, the other two teams in the section, Falkland and Poloc are not out of it despite having won none of their games. One point for a cancelled match means that both of these teams are still in contention with three points each.

Scottish Cup 2012 - Group E

Standings: 

Greenock met Carlton in their very first competitive match of the season on the last Saturday in April. It was a very low scoring affair which the Edinburgh club won, but not without having to work hard for their victory. Greenock struggled to just 87 all out with Richie Berrington (21) and Alex Baum (22) the only significant contributors to the Glenpark side’s total. In reply, Preston Mommsen with 55 not out carried the Grange Loan team to the win while other batsmen failed to find any form and if Greenock had only managed another thirty or forty runs the outcome may have been different.

This Saturday, both sides will show a number of changes to their line-ups. The Scottish Saltires have an Inter Continental Cup four day match against Canada which is taking place Wednesday to Saturday of this week at Bothwell Policies, Uddingston and as a result Richie Berrington from Greenock and Preston Mommsen and Gordon Drummond from Carlton will miss the Scottish Cup clash.

Also missing from Greenock’s side this weekend from the teams which have been chosen recently are Chris Hempsey and Sam Sanghera.

Carlton have considerable strength in depth and will still have the likes of most-capped Scottish Internationalist and former Greenock player Fraser Watts and former English county player Toby Bailey in their side. Watts has fallen cheaply in his last two outings against Greenock and for him to do so a third time might be being overly hopeful. He is highly experienced and will be looking to post a good score against his former club.

In the Carlton middle order is likely to be 26 year old Umair Mohammed who joined the Edinburgh club this season from Forfarshire. He represented Scotland at the U/19 World Cup in Sri Lanka in 2006 and also played for Scotland A a number of times in 2007. He can be a dangerous middle order bat and has the potential to pick up wickets with his right arm off-spin bowling.

Former Drumpellier fast bowler John Hutton and Australian overseas amateur Michael Herdman will be likely to form Carlton’s opening attack. Herdman, in particular, was the cause of Greenock’s batting woes when the teams met in April. In just a little more than five overs he picked up five Greenock wickets, bowling three, for the loss of just six runs.

Greenock will almost certainly look to the open their batting line-up with Alex Baum and Shailesh Prabhu. Their opening combination had begun to look good before the poor weather created the lengthy break in competitive action.

South African pro Mpho Sekhoto will be looking forward to getting out into the middle and if he can stay there for five to ten overs, then there is every likelihood that he will get into gear and build a significant innings.

Greenock captain Ryan Begley has shown some good form in the games which have been played and will look to contribute well on Saturday along with others in the middle order. For all players, of course, it is like starting the season all over again, as it will be four weeks since most have had a competitive outing.

Richie Berrington, missing from the batting top order, will be a considerable loss to Greenock in terms of his run scoring potential. His contribution to the bowling attack will also be a very significant loss and it will therefore be left to pace bowler Waleed Jamal to lead the Glenpark side’s bowling line-up on Saturday. Others who Greenock captain Ryan Begley will call upon to bowl will be Jonathan Hempsey, Greg McDougall and pro Mpho Sekhoto. Also likely to feature in the bowling line-up and returning to the Greenock team for the trip to Edinburgh is Mark Robertson, whose slow right arm bowling brought quite a bit of success earlier in the season.

The Greenock attack for Saturday’s match at Grange Loan, Jamal aside, is not one of pace but following weeks of very wet weather the less pace on the ball may present more problems for the batsmen.

If the match in Edinburgh can thwart the wet weather, and Greenock can gain a positive result, then the local side will have a very good chance of having further weekend competitive cup cricket to look forward to in the second half of the season.

The Glenpark XI entertain Kilmarnock at Glenpark in the Western Cup with a team that has been impacted by the absences in the 1st XI. Nonetheless if the players can just get on the park, they will be confident of a strong showing. This match starts at 1pm.

The Hillend XI travel to Irvine on Sunday for a WDCU Sunday League fixture. With a number of doubts on player availability, a team has still to be announced.

Next Saturday 14 July, former West Indian test cricket legend Gordon Greenidge, who was professional at Greenock in both 1990 and 1992, will be present at Glenpark for the final Scottish Cup sectional match with Falkland and he will also take part in the official unfurling of the Club’s 150th Anniversary flag which has been generously donated to the Club by the McClure family.