Greenock take huge stride towards safety

Stirling County vs Greenock 1st XI
WDCU CSL Premier Division
Saturday 18th August 2018

Scorecard       

Greenock gained a hugely important win away to Stirling County on Saturday on a day when all other Premier Division matches fell victim to the weather. The result means that the Glenparkers now require just three points from the final Premier Division match against Poloc to be assured of their place in the top league next season.

Fellow relegation contenders Poloc, Ayr and Dumfries all had their matches cancelled due to the wet weather which affected much of west central Scotland on Saturday and that assured Poloc of retaining their Premier Division status, while Greenock's win doomed Dumfries to life in Division One for 2019.

So now only Ayr have a chance of thwarting Greenock, and to do so the scenario is that they must win at Dumfries, and, at the same time, Greenock must also lose to Poloc and gain less than three bonus points at Glenpark.

WDCU CSL Premier Division Table (as at 18 August)

At New Williamfield on Saturday, Greenock were forced into fielding a side which included a couple of players carrying injuries and also lacked several players who might normally have been first choices for the team. Indian Pro Saurabh Bandekar and Under-15 Scottish internationalist Sean Fischer-Keogh were both unable to bowl due to upper body injuries while top order batsmen Harry Briggs and Jack Griffiths were unavailable and bowler/batsman Jonathan Hempsey was out due to a back injury.

So when Stirling County batted first, Greenock captain Neil Flack had a dilemma as to who to use to lead the bowling attack. He opted for Sam Sanghera and himself and his choices proved successful as Stirling scored just 24 runs from the opening ten overs and lost the wickets of Andrew Carswell (1) leg before and Akash Rawal (10) caught by Sehmat Pandher. Both wickets were from Flack's own own bowling.

Opening batsman Matthew Tweedie and Tom Bradburn led a revival in Stirling's fortunes adding 47 runs before Bradburn was caught by wicketkeeper Chris Hempsey for 24 off the bowling of Laurens Smit in the 27th over. But that was to be the best partnership of the afternoon.

Just ten more runs had been added when Ewan Stewart came into the Greenock attack and with only his second ball had Tweedie caught by Chris Hempsey for 36.

Tom Jones (not the Welsh singer!) replaced Tweedie and joined South African amateur Brandon McMullen in the middle but wickets continued to fall regularly as Stirling failed to take advantage of Greenock's varied bowling options.

McMullen (8) was caught by Flack off the third ball of Sanghera's second bowling spell, then Gavin Anderson was bowled by Ewan Stewart as County tumbled to 103 for 6 in the 39th over.

With runs needed in the remaining eleven overs, Stirling had little choice but to resort to some big hitting and while Jones played an anchor role, the lower order line-up of Akram Shakoor, Paul Bielby and Rukman Hewage went for the big hits and each had some success with that approach.

Shakoor hit three boundaries in a short innings before being trapped LBW by Greg McDougall for 13. Bielby hit one boundary and two 'sixes' in a quickfire innings of 22 before presenting a catch to Sean Fischer-Keogh off the bowling of Sanghera and Hewage smashed two boundaries and one maximum in a brief spell at the wicket before being bowled by Flack for 16.

In amongst the late order race for runs, Jones had quietly built the home side's second top score of the innings, 34, but he became Chris Hempsey's third victim of the afternoon, and the ninth wicket down, when caught behind the wicket off Sam Sanghera's bowling.

County were all out in the 48th over for 178 thanks to the late flurry of runs from their tail end batsmen, leaving Greenock with the task of scoring under four runs an over to win when they batted after the tea interval.

Greenock used six bowlers during the Stirling innings with Sam Sanghera 3 wickets for 31 runs and Neil Flack 3 for 30 the top performers. Ewan Stewart 2 for 23, Greg McDougall 1 for 29 and Laurens Smit 1 for 39 were the other wicket-takers in what was, in the circumstances, a fine performance in the field by the Greenock side.

The Glenparkers started slowly and a bit nervously losing Shailesh Prabhu (4), Chris Hempsey (12) and skipper Neil Flack (16) with just 44 runs on the board after 20 overs.

But from that point onwards in the match, Greenock took total control with Indian professional Saurabh Bandekar and South African amateur Laurens Smit finding their best form at the right moment for team. The pair played with confidence and built up a superb partnership which whittled away at the County total over by over as the home side could find no way to stop their run-scoring.

In the end, Greenock won very comfortably with the winning runs being scored in the 43rd over. Bandekar, who has batted consistently well in the second half of the season, top scored with 75 not out in an innings which included ten boundaries and one six. Smit produced a fine supporting innings of 57 not out with eight boundaries as he too showed his ability as a top order batsman.