Greenock outscored by league leaders Ferguslie

Ferguslie vs Greenock 1st XI
WDCU CSL Premier Division
Saturday 17th June 2017

Scorecard       

Greenock lost to league leaders Ferguslie by fifty runs in Saturday's Premier Division clash at Meikleriggs. It was the league's highest scoring match of the day and although Greenock, by the end, were well beaten, the local team put in a decent performance.

Ferguslie's victory was very largely down to the batting performances of just two players, Michael English and Riyaad Henry. English scored a very fine 119 and Henry 72. These were the two players identified prior to the match as being the key players for the Ferguslie side and they lived up to 'what it said on the tin'.

Ferguslie won the toss and immediately opted to make first use of a good wicket. And although Greenock made an early breakthrough, with Julian Hulbert dismissing John Allan caught by Neil Flack for just 6 with the score on 11 with the first ball of the match's fifth over, it simply brought together the in-form English and Henry.

A boundary from his very first ball signalled Henry's intent and during the next twenty five overs the partnership delivered one hundred and forty three runs at a rate of almost a run a ball.

Henry was the man out when the high scoring partnership was eventually broken, with Shailesh Prabhu taking a good catch from the bowling of Sam Sanghera.

Fifty eight runs from the next nine overs kept up the run-scoring momentum for Ferguslie as English and new batsman James Holt scored with relative ease. However, Holt was run out by Greg McDougall for 19 with the score on 199.

Having brought up his century in the 43rd over, Michael English cut loose in the next over. Jonathan Hempsey, who had bowled quite economically up until that point, was the bowler to suffer as English smashed eighteen runs from just four balls before perishing to a catch by Aidan Forrest off the fifth ball of the same over. 234 for 4 wickets.

Ferguslie's number five batsman, David Stafford, was clean bowled by Julian Hulbert with just one more run added but the Paisley side continued to score well in the last few remaining overs and took the total to an imposing 275 for the loss of eight wickets at the end of their fifty overs.

Hulbert picked up two more wickets in the late run chase to finish with 4 wickets for 55 runs from his 10 overs.

Facing a big total, Greenock needed to score at a rate of almost six runs an over as they began their innings after the tea interval. And at 25 for no wicket after the first five overs, the Glenparkers looked to be making a good start to the chase.

But two wickets in quick succession put the visitors on to the back foot as firstly Harry Briggs was caught by Henry off the the bowling of Jamie Carruthers for 13 and then in-form batsman Neil Flack was run out, having scored just nine runs. 27 for 2 wickets in the sixth over.

Aussie amateur Kyle Scrimegour and the experienced Shailesh Prabhu then settled into a fruitful partnership of fifty eight runs which, while not at the required run rate, got Greenock back into the game. The partnership was broken when Prabhu was caught by English off the bowling of Haroon Tahir for 24 runs in the 23rd over.

Louis Ware became Greenock's second batsman to be run out when English produced a sharp piece of fielding in the 27th over and the Glenparkers were then toiling on 93 for 4 and still needing 183 runs to win from the remaining twenty three overs

A fifty one run partnership in the next ten overs between Scrimegour and fellow Aussie Hulbert gave Greenock the slim hope that the Ferguslie total might yet be overcome. But when Scrimegour was bowled by Cook for a very fine 66 runs in the 37th over with the total on 144 for the loss of 5 wickets, Ferguslie were well in command of the match.

In the last thirteen overs, Greenock did well to take their innings score to 225, but lost a further four wickets as they sought to score as many runs as possible. Hulbert with 41, Aidan Forrest 19 and Jonathan Hempsey 18 were the main run scorers in the latter stages for the visitors.

Jamie Carruthers with 2 wickets for 50 runs from 9 overs was Ferguslie's most successful bowler, while no fewer than four run-outs contributed to Greenock's inability to chase down the large home total.

The match on Saturday was the third meeting of the two sides, all at Meikleriggs, Paisley, in the space of just six days with the first match abandoned after just four overs due to rain. Ferguslie were the winners of both the West League Cup sectional tie on Wednesday evening and Saturday's Premier Division match.