Greenock look to finish season on a high note

The Premier Division cricket season draws to a close this weekend at the end of a summer which has been blighted by bad weather. But weather permitting this Saturday afternoon at Glenpark, Greenock will complete their Premier Division fixtures with a visit from Poloc.

Weather has had a major impact in the second half of the season. Both Greenock and Poloc have had three matches cancelled due to wet weather over the last four weekends and as a result players in both teams will be keen to play this Saturday especially as it is the last match of the season.

Poloc are just one place above Greenock in the Premier Division table, but a win by the Glenparkers will see them leapfrog the Glasgow south-side team. And with there being no danger of relegation as the bottom two teams, Drumpellier and East Kilbride, are both now certain to drop down to the First Division, Greenock will be able to approach the game with Poloc assured of their place in next season's top division.

So, it should be a Greenock team free from the pressure of potential relegation which takes to the field on Saturday, and supporters will be hoping that the side can end the season in style with an entertaining game and a fourth league win.

Greenock pro Saurabh Bandekar has had a fine season with both bat and ball. He is currently top run-scorer in the Premier Division with 604 runs which is 173 ahead of second placed Rory Kleinveldt of West of Scotland who has 431 runs. He will almost certainly, therefore, finish the season as the highest run-scorer in the top league.

Bandekar is also a top wicket-taker and could overtake Sachin Chaudhary of Prestwick CC to become the player with most wickets if he can produce a really class display of bowling against Poloc.

But the Glasgow south-siders will themselves be keen to finish the season on a high note. They have had a season very similar to Greenock, winning just three times throughout the summer and flirting with relegation as the second half of the league programme has progressed.

The Shawholm team has failed to gain a single win in the second half of the Premier Division league programme and last won when they played against Greenock towards the end of June. Other wins were gained against the bottom two teams Drumpellier and East Kilbride also in June.

Key players for Saturday's visitors to Glenpark will be Lesiba Ngoepe, Mo Dar, Craig Young and Amaan Ramzan. They have been Poloc's main run scorers during the summer. South African professional Ngoepe and Dar have both been close to scoring centuries during the season but none of the Poloc players have come close to the total of runs accumulated by Bandekar.

The main issue for Poloc, like Greenock, has been a lack of consistency from their batting line-up, so the team from Shawholm will be keen to finish the season with a good batting performance.

No one bowler has stood out for the Poloc team in this season's Premier Division matches. Zaighum Ahmad with 16 wickets and Yasir Arafat with 13 are the Glasgow side's top wicket-takers but at least another five players have been regularly used in the Poloc bowling attack.

Greenock and Poloc have travelled very similar roads in recent years. Both sides gained promotion in 2016 when Greenock 88% pipped Poloc 87.14% for the Division One title. In the seasons since then, both clubs have managed, only just, to maintain their Premier Division status and so it is once again in the 2019 season. But while Poloc have had a poor second half of the league programme this summer, Greenock were looking good with three wins in a row in July only for the exceptionally poor weather to disrupt the improved form which the team had been showing.

On Saturday, Greenock will be without three of their most experienced players Neil Flack, Jonathan Hempsey and Shailesh Prabhu but will nevertheless be able to play a side which should give Poloc a very challenging afternoon and hopefully win the match and end the season on a positive note.

But, of course, the weather remains a very important factor and hopefully the rain, which has caused so many problems this month, relents in time. A warm and sunny afternoon at Glenpark on Saturday and a win for Greenock would be welcomed by local supporters.

Greenock's team for the match, which will start at 12noon, shows two changes from last week's selection with Chris Hempsey and Rod Mountford replacing the unavailable Shailesh Prabhu and Lukas Fischer-Keogh.

The Glenpark XI have no league match this Saturday, but on Sunday the Hillend XI have arranged a friendly fixture against Irvine at Glenpark. This match will begin at 1pm.

WDCU CSL Premier Division Table

Greenock Cricket Club is sponsored this season by Cleaning Supplies 4U.