Greenock lose to Carlton in opening cup match

Greenock 1st XI vs Carlton
Scottish Cup
Saturday 28th April 2012

Scorecard       

Greenock lost their opening sectional Scottish Cup tie on Saturday at Glenpark to last season’s SNCL Premiership winners Carlton, who were made to work hard for their win despite having to score less than 100 runs for victory.

The Edinburgh side gained an early advantage by winning the toss for this early season competitive match, and immediately inserted Greenock. Shailesh Prabhu and Richie Berrington opened the innings for the local side and made a brisk start by taking seven runs from the first over. However, new signing John Hutton, formerly of Drumpellier, snared Prabhu with the fifth delivery of his first over when the Greenock opener edged the ball and was well caught by wicketkeeper Jamie Kerr diving low to his right.

Alex Baum and Berrington then took the game to Carlton with a fine partnership of 47 runs, which was moving along at almost four runs per over until Baum was bowled by Australian overseas amateur Michael Herdman for 22. Just five runs later, Herdman struck again when he had Berrington caught by wicketkeeper Kerr for 21 and Greenock were in trouble. The fall of two further wickets in the space of just two balls with the score on just 67, when first captain Ryan Begley was bowled and then Mark Robertson was trapped LBW, left the Glenpark side reeling with five wickets down.

Only Jonathan Hempsey, with 11 runs, thereafter made double figures as Gordon Drummond and Chayank Gosain almost totally stemmed the run rate and also picked up a further four wickets between them. Herdman returned to the Edinburgh side’s bowling attack, at what turned out to be the end of the Greenock innings, and collected his fifth wicket when he comprehensively bowled last man Waleed Jamal.

From a promising position of 55 for 1 in the 16th over Greenock had collapsed to being all out for 87 in the 35th over.

Such a low total was never going to be enough, especially against the very strong, talented and experienced batting line-up of Scotland’s top club cricket team. However, the Grange Loan side did not have it all their own way and were made to work hard to overtake the meagre total Greenock set for their victory.

Carlton openers Fraser Watts and Sean Olivier set off at a fast tempo taking eight runs from the opening over, but, like Greenock, lost an early wicket when, with just the second ball of the second over, Waleed Jamal’s pace was too good for Olivier and his stumps were scattered. New batsman Preston Mommsen survived a couple of catching chances which were put down by Greenock early in his innings and he then made the home side pay with an unbeaten 55 runs.

Greenock did restore some pride with the capture of four further wickets, 3 for Richie Berrington and 1 for Jonathan Hempsey, before the almost inevitable winning runs were scored in just the sixteenth over.

Although it was a disappointing result, Greenock should nevertheless take some positives from this opening competitive Saturday afternoon. Alex Baum played a number of fine shots and looked to be in good form until he was beaten by Herdman and Richie Berrington too was in fine form with the bat and ball. Dropped catches aside, there was a determination to fight for wickets right up until the conclusion of the game.

Perhaps if Greenock had won the toss.........?

Greenock CC wish to thank Match Sponsor, Spar Convenience Store (South Street), for their generous support.