Greenock maintain push to retain top-flight place

Prestwick vs Greenock 1st XI
WDCU CSL Premier Division
Saturday 21st July 2018

Prestwick 196 for 7 T Fleet 49*, F Jawad 30
Greenock 198 for 4 CJK Hempsey 61, S Bandekar 56, ML Smit 30*; R Patterson 3 for 37

 Scorecard       

Greenock gained an important win on Saturday over last season's champions, Prestwick, and moved up to eighth position, just above Ayr and Dumfries, as the team fights to retain its Premier League status.

WDCU CSL Premier Division Table (as at 21 July)

 
Played
Won
Lost
Tied
Points
Net Run Rate
%
Ferguslie
11  
10
1
0
255
1.57
  92.73
Clydesdale
12  
8
4
0
219
0.01
  73.00
Uddingston
11  
6
5
0
175
0.23
  63.64
Stirling County
10  
5
4
1
146
0.13
  58.40
Prestwick
12  
6
6
0
172
-0.15 
  57.34
West of Scotland
11  
5
6
0
150
-0.29 
  54.55
Poloc
11  
5
6
0
149
0.54
  54.19
Greenock
11  
4
7
0
113
-1.16
  41.10
Ayr
12  
3
9
0
114
-0.49 
  38.00
Dumfries
9
2
6
1
  81
-0.69 
  36.00

Prestwick captain Shazad Rafiq won the toss at the Henry Thow Oval, opted to bat and opened the innings with himself and Fazal Jawad. The pair made a steady start for most of the first four overs, but with the last ball of the fourth over, and the score on sixteen, Rafiq (2) got a nick to a ball from Neil Flack and the chance was smartly held by wicketkeeper Chris Hempsey standing up to the stumps.

Young overseas player Jacob Steber from Australia joined Jawad out in the middle and the Prestwick innings moved along very slowly for the next fifteen overs. Jawad was the principal run-scorer as the partnership added just 31 runs before Jawad, having scored 30 runs, was bowled by Greenock's recently capped Scotland Under-15 international Sean Fischer-Keogh.

In the following over to Jawad's dismissal, Steber became Greenock's third wicket of the afternoon when he was caught by Rod Mountford off the bowling of Laurens Smit. Steber scored just 7 runs from 53 balls and was at the crease for a full hour.

By the mid-innings drinks break at the end of the 25th over, Prestwick had moved on to 66 but had lost a fourth wicket, that of David Carlyle (5) stumped by Chris Hempsey off the bowling of Laurens Smit.

Needing to seriously increase their run rate in the second half of their innings, Prestwick looked to former Irvine CC professional Sachin Chaudhary, and others in their batting middle order, to get their innings moving. Chaudhary and Tom Fleet took the score to 87 before Greg McDougall, in his third over, captured the important wicket of Chaudhary, caught behind by Chris Hempsey for 20.

Greenock continued to keep a fairly tight grip on the Prestwick run-scoring and after forty overs had been completed the Glenpark side looked to be in a quite commanding position as their Ayrshire opponents had only 117 runs on the scoreboard, although no further wickets had been lost.

But as has happened all too often, the last ten overs became a period in the game where Greenock failed to continue to contain their opposition scoring and Prestwick added a further 69 runs for the loss of just two more wickets.

Fleet was the key to Prestwick's late innings revival, scoring an unbeaten 49, but he was well supported by Scotland international Mitchell Rao (22) and Craig Morrison (23) as the home side reached 196 for the loss of 7 wickets at the end of their 50 overs.

Greenock used six bowlers during the Prestwick innings with Neil Flack 2 wickets for 30 runs, Laurens Smit 2 for 30, Greg McDougall 2 for 45 and Sean Fischer-Keogh 1 for 34, the wicket-takers.

Needing almost 200 runs to win at a rate of nearly four runs an over, and with a side which was missing several first team regulars, Greenock opened up with Neil Flack and Chris Hempsey, an untried partnership put together at the top of the order due to usual opener Harry Briggs' unavailability.

The pairing seemed to be working until the third ball of the seventh over with the team score on 21, when Flack edged a delivery from Ross Patterson and was caught by wicketkeeper Tom Fleet having scored 13 runs.

The early wicket of Flack was Prestwick's only joy for a very long time as Chris Hempsey and Saurabh Bandekar built a very fine partnership which put Greenock into a potentially match-winning position. The team score reached fifty in the 19th over and then passed one hundred in just the 29th over.

The partnership itself between Hempsey and Bandekar reached 100 runs in the 34th over but was brought to an end in the next over with the score on 126 when Bandekar was caught by Jawad for 56 off the bowling of Patterson, who had just returned to the Prestwick bowling attack for a second spell.

Greenock continued to move towards their target, but with fifty runs still needed, and nearly twelve overs still available, Prestwick gained a double wicket breakthrough. Patterson picked up his third wicket of the afternoon when he had Rod Mountford (10) caught behind by Fleet with the score on 147, and with just two more runs added Chris Hempsey was bowled by Jawad having scored a fine 61 runs.

With a mainly young and inexperienced tail end to the Greenock batting order, the responsibility of getting Greenock to the winning line lay squarely on the shoulders of overseas amateur Laurens Smit and Greg McDougall, and the pair did not disappoint.

Smit took the lead, and with McDougall playing a very important supporting role, the pair took Greenock to a quite impressive win over the 2017 champions in the 48th over. Smit was unbeaten on 30 and McDougall not out 6.

Ross Patterson with 3 wickets for 37 runs from 10 overs was Prestwick's top bowler.

Five matches now remain as the Glenparkers strive to avoid relegation in what is increasingly looking like a three team struggle at the foot of the Premier Division involving Ayr, Dumfries and Greenock