Greenock just fail to hold off Dumfries

Dumfries vs Greenock 1st XI
WDCU CSL Premier Division
Saturday 3rd June 2017

Scorecard       

Greenock's long journey to Dumfries on Saturday ended in great disappointment as the team lost out in a very high scoring encounter. It was a game in which, for almost its entirety, the Glenparkers had been on top, but which slipped out of their grasp due to a late onslaught of run-scoring in the closing overs as Dumfries won with just five balls of the match remaining.

Greenock batted first at the attractive Nunholm ground and, despite an early setback when Harry Briggs was bowled without scoring, the innings developed very positively with Neil Flack and Kyle Scrimegour scoring with relative ease.

After ten overs, Flack and Scrimegour had taken the score to 50 and by the end of fifteen overs it was 83 for the loss of one wicket with Flack unbeaten on 43 and Scrimegour unbeaten on 28. But shortly thereafter, Scrimegour was out bowled by Scott Beveridge for 39.

However, Greenock's run-scoring was hardly affected by this setback, as Louis Ware, coming in at number four in the batting order, was quick to get into his stride and the partnership with Flack maintained the run scoring momentum.

Eighty runs were added before Ware became the first of two wickets in two balls for Alan Davidson, both LBW, which left Greenock on 188 for 4 in the 36th over. However, Neil Flack was still going well and a score of 270 to 280 looked possible. But that target soon had to be reappraised as two further wickets were lost with only eight more runs on to the total.

And when Flack was run out for 94 and Aidan Forrest was LBW to Scott Beveridge, both wickets with the score on 214, Greenock were in danger of making less than 220 runs and not batting out their fifty overs.

In the event, in the remaining six overs, team captain Jonathan Hempsey and Sam Sanghera provided an encouraging finish to the innings by adding thirty six runs. Hempsey was 20 not out and Sanghera 13 not out as Greenock reached 250 for 8 wickets at the end of the fifty overs.

Daniel Armstrong with 3 for 47 was the home side's top wicket-taker.

Greenock achieved an early breakthrough when Dumfries began their innings, with Rob McBride bowled by Neil Flack in just the fourth over with the score on fifteen. Greenock then thought that they had gained the wicket of Dumfries' other opener Tom McBride but the umpire gave the batsman the benefit of the doubt over a tight stumping decision following quick work by Chris Hempsey.

It was to be a crucial decision, as McBride went on to score 89 very valuable runs for his side before being the third wicket down, caught and bowled by Kyle Scrimegour, by which time the home total had moved on to 153.

However, when Dumfries lost their fourth wicket on 175 with the loss of Chris Bellwood for 39, Greenock appeared to be well in control of the match. A further seventy six runs were still needed to be scored by the Nunholm team and just nine overs remained to be played.

But Dumfries were not finished and some hard hitting by Josh Forsyth and Stuart Corbett-Byers turned the game on its head as the Greenock bowlers could do little to stem the flow of runs. Two more wickets did fall during the late onslaught, Forsyth caught and bowled by Neil Flack for 42 and Scott Beveridge caught by Flack off the bowling of Phil McIntosh for 3. But Corbett-Byers carried his side to victory with a match-winning 34 not out to take Dumfries to 252 and the win with just five balls remaining.

Kyle Scrimegour with 3 for 49 from his ten overs had Greenock's best bowling analysis.

It was a hugely disappointing finale for the Greenock side which had played well for most of the game but lost out at the very end of a well contested match.