Greenock move clear from the foot of the table

Uddingston vs Greenock 1st XI
WDCU CSL Premier Division
Saturday 4th August 2018

 Scorecard       

Greenock made a massive move towards survival in the Premier Division with a fine eight wicket win over Uddingston at Bothwell Policies on Saturday afternoon, while the bottom two teams, Ayr and Dumfries, both lost.

With only three Saturdays remaining in the Premier Division season, Greenock have opened up an important gap between themselves and the bottom two, but are not yet safe. However, one more win from the last three matches should all but confirm top flight cricket at Glenpark once again in 2019.

WDCU CSL Premier Division Table (as at 4 August)

Neil Flack won the toss at Bothwell Policies and inserted the home team. Indian professional Saurabh Bandekar, leading the attack with his pace bowling, got Greenock off to the best possible start to the match by clean bowling the top four batsmen in the Uddingston line-up to leave them facing an uphill battle at 26 for 4 in just the ninth over.

First to go was Mo Awais clean bowled with the third ball of the fifth over. He had scored 11 runs and had begun his innings well and, with a couple of boundaries to his credit, he was looking dangerous. But Bandekar's pace proved too much for the opener and his wicket started a real 'purple patch' for the Greenock pro.

Home team skipper Bryan Clarke was removed without scoring with the first ball of Bandekar's fourth over and he set up a possible hat-trick opportunity when South African amateur Jimmy Sholto-Douglas was bowled next ball. But the experienced Gavin Bradley played out the remainder of the over to deny Bandekar his second hat-trick of the season.

However, Bandekar was still 'on fire' and grabbed his fourth wicket of the afternoon in his very next over when opener Aamir Gul (6) had his stumps knocked back to leave Uddingston in deep trouble.

The home team's batting woes continued when Ross Lyons was very well caught by Laurens Smit off the bowling of Neil Flack in the fourteenth over and in the fifteenth, Smit took another smart catch, this time off the bowling of Jonathan Hempsey, to send Bradley (14) back to the pavilion with the score having only moved along to 48 for 6.

Flack then had Fergus Clarke (6) caught by Ewan Stewart, David Bill (2) LBW and Adil Raza (1) caught and bowled by himself, and Uddingston looked down and out at 67 for the loss of 9 wickets in the 22nd over.

But then, the well worn phrase 'it's never over until it's over' came into play.

With Greenock pro Saurabh Bandekar having completed his ten overs, veteran Derek Allan and Muhammad Adnan set about trying to save some face for the home team and they did a fantastic job. Their last wicket partnership added seventy seven runs, which more than doubled the team score, and hugely lifted the spirits of their team-mates who had been left dejected with the earlier poor performance out in the middle.

Derek Allan wound the clock back with a magnificent display of shots as he hit nine boundaries in his innings of 63 not out, batting at number ten in the Uddingston line-up. But the introduction of Greg McDougall to the bowling attack in the 38th over brought the partnership to an end when Adnan (10) skied the fifth ball of the over to Bandekar who took a good running catch at mid on and Uddingston's innings ended on 144 all out.

While Greenock no doubt felt that they had let Uddingston off the hook, the 144 total was one which they would very happily have accepted before the start of play and it also represented a target of just under three runs per over to chase.

Bandekar with 4 wickets for 30 runs from his 10 overs and Flack with 4 for 25 from a similar number, were Greenock's top performers with the ball.

After the tea break, Uddingston looked to capitalise on the resurgence provided by the large last-wicket stand created by Allan and Adnan. But Greenock openers Shailesh Prabhu and Chris Hempsey were up to the task, and having put fifty runs on to the scoreboard without loss by the nineteenth over, the home team's earlier upbeat demeanour was noticeably changed.

However, two LBW decisions awarded to change bowler Gavin Bradley in his opening two overs by Willie Russell, umpiring his first ever Premier Division match, gave the Bothwell side a lift in their mood. First to go was Prabhu trapped on the crease for 21, and then Hempsey followed attempting to glance the ball to the leg side having scored 29.

The dismissals of the two openers brought together Neil Flack and Saurabh Bandekar and these two used all their experience to deny Uddingston any further breakthroughs. Their partnership began with the score on 55 for two in the 23rd over and they batted with a steady assuredness for the next twenty overs as they knocked off the runs without any real alarms.

Ninety two runs resulted from the partnership as Greenock moved inexorably towards the 145 target with Flack 43 not out and Bandekar 33 not out when victory was achieved in the 44th over.

With the exception of the failure to quickly break the Uddingston last wicket partnership, this was as fine a Greenock performance as the team has shown during the 2018 season and came at the perfect time as the battle to secure Premier Division cricket moves towards its climax.

Particularly pleasing for the Greenock team was the manner in which they tackled chasing down the Uddingston total. The top order batsmen displayed a disciplined approach and batted with care and concentration to accumulate their runs.

Now only three matches remain and further performances of this standard should be enough for Greenock to secure their place in the top league for another season.