Rain stops play at Glenpark.......again!
Greenock 1st XI v Uddingston
CSL Western Premier Division
Saturday 4th August 2012
| Uddingston | 250 for 9 | BARS Priyadarshana 118, CS MacLeod 39; GJ McDougall 3 for 31, MR Sekhoto 3 for 34 | |
| Greenock 1st XI |
The forecast of heavy rain for Saturday, which was being announced on every overhead motorway sign across central Scotland on Friday evening, was unfortunately proved correct when in the late afternoon a thunderstorm of Armageddon proportions deluged the Inverclyde area and brought about the premature end to yet another of Greenock’s 1st XI matches.
Although warm and quite sunny on Saturday morning, this CSL Western Premier Division match did not get under way until just after one o’clock due to the heavy rainfall from Friday evening which had left the Glenpark outfield very wet.
Ricky Bawa, the Uddingston captain, won the toss and elected to bat and openers Niall MacLeod and Amir Gul made a decent start scoring 30 runs before Richie Berrington bowled MacLeod for 10. Gul was joined by Sri Lankan professional Batelpola Priyadarshana and they took the score to 79 in the 13th over before Gul was bowled by Mpho Sekhoto for 25.
Scottish Internationalist Calum MacLeod and Priyadarshana then put together an outstanding 104 run partnership with the Sri Lankan professional, in particular, dominating the play. The partnership was ended when Greenock opening bowler Waleed Jamal was brought back for a second spell and he had MacLeod caught by wicketkeeper Alex Baum for 39 with the visitor’s score on 183 in the 32nd over.
Greenock picked up another two fairly quick wickets after MacLeod’s dismissal, but Priyadarshana continued to punish the Glenpark bowlers and reached his 100 after two hours and ten minutes at the crease. Priyadarshana went on to score 118 before being well caught by Chris Hempsey at mid off as he attempted to hit Ryan Begley for a boundary in the penultimate over of the Uddingston innings. He amassed fourteen boundaries and one huge six in his outstanding innings.
Greg McDougall, who had bowled well in the mid section of the innings, was brought back for the last over of play and he picked up three wickets in his over to give Greenock a degree of respectability at the tea interval. McDougall finished with bowling figures of 3 wickets for 31 runs from 7 overs. Pro Mpho Sekhoto also picked up 3 wickets from his 8 overs at a cost of 34 runs.
The thunderstorm which broke during the tea interval left the ground with large amounts of surface water and resulted in no more play being possible and the match was abandoned as a consequence.
Greenock now have just four fixtures remaining in the CSL Western Premier Division of which only one match is at home and must gain some wins from these matches if relegation is to be avoided. Surely the weather will improve in the coming weeks to at least provide a chance of play and thereby some opportunity of survival in the Premier Division?
