Hillend XI lose out to Irvine in Sunday League

Hillend XI 190 for 7 (P Hempsey 51*, SS Sanghera 37*)

Irvine 193 for 3 (C Doyle 65*, M Ingram 47*)

The Hillend XI lost their first Sunday League fixture in two seasons when the team went down by seven wickets to Irvine in a high scoring, 35 overs-a-side game at Glenpark on Sunday.

Batting first, the Hillend XI got off to a disastrous start losing two of their adult, more experienced batsmen Mark Robertson and Chris Hempsey both for ducks inside the first five overs. Young Niall Forrest and Brian Roberts then put together a partnership of 39 runs before Roberts was caught having scored 16 runs. An unfortunate run out shortly afterwards brought to an end a very promising innings from Niall Forrest for 16.

A number of other batsmen came and went until an eighth wicket partnership of 102 between Peter Hempsey and Sam Sanghera elevated the Greenock score to 190 for the loss of seven wickets at the end of 35 overs. Hempsey was 51 not out and Sanghera was 37 not out.

Shahid Butt and Mohammed Noor put on 57 runsfor visitors Irvine, before Butt became Sam Sanghera’s first of two LBW decisions. Just 10 runs later Noor also was judged LBW to Sanghera then young Jagdeu Singh was well caught by Jamie Small from Kieran Wylie’s bowling having scored just nine runs.

Enter the haymaker, club wielding Colin Doyle to join Michael Ingram. These two proceded to take the game away from Greenock, who had looked to be well in control of the match up until this partnership came together. Boundary after boundary was recorded as these two, in particular Doyle, smashed the home bowling without mercy, and with less than three overs remaining the winning runs were scored. Doyle was unbeaten on 65 and Ingram not out 47.