Glenpark XI brought back to earth by St Ninians

Glenpark XI v St Ninians
CSL Western First Division Reserve League
Saturday 1st June

After last week’s excitement it was back to earth with a bump for Glenpark this weekend.

Having chosen to bat, the St Ninians openers got off to a flyer. Sandeep Singh struggled with line and length and, although Dave Sharma frequently beat or hit the edge from the other end, there were too many boundary balls to exert any pressure on the batsmen. A permanent light rain making gripping the ball difficult did not help efforts. Louis Ware finally got the first wicket, with the pair putting on almost a century by the 13th over. Had Niall Forrest taken an opportunity to catch the number three off Dave soon after, Glenpark may still have dismissed the visitors for a low score – but opener Rao continued to score freely until finally falling in Dave’s last over for an excellent 70. After that, the batsmen showed little staying power, though some indiscreet bowling did allow another 100 runs to be added (32 wides in the innings). Sandeep came back well to capture three wickets, and Louis, William Goan and Kieran Wylie all took one each.

In contrast to the first innings, Glenpark played out their run chase in delightful afternoon sunshine – unfortunately the early batting did not shine in the same manner. Dave failed again and sparked a mini collapse as four top order wickets fell for 24 runs. This brought veteran Peter Robertson in to join opener Harry Briggs and they set about repairing the damage. They shared an excellent partnership of 78, during which Harry brought up his maiden senior half-century. With 15 overs left, a rate of just over 7-an-over was required; there remained hope of a victory with this pair together. Tragically Peter’s dismissal led to another two with no addition to the total, these included Harry, and Louis run out without facing a ball. After this, Glenpark never challenged the target, though Chris Goan did enjoy batting with freedom, and ensured the final total was respectable.

In the end the difference was really the St Ninians’ opening batsmen, Glenpark left to rue not getting an early breakthrough - as such the best team won on the day.

St Ninians (12 pts) 238 (41.2 overs) M Rao 70, P Stafford 39, M Miller 31; S Singh 3 for 53

Glenpark XI (5 pts) 198 for 9 (50 overs) H Briggs 57, C Goan 37*; N Calderwood 4 for 25

St Ninians won by 40 runs

Glenpark XI Man of the Match:  A fine innings from Harry Briggs

Scooby Award: A personal selection these days: although the team appreciated Kieran Wylie updating the scoreboard, he should have noticed something was amiss when he added 34 runs for one over!

scorecard

'The Snake'