1st XI's push for a win at Ayr derailed by heavy rain

Ayr v Greenock 1st XI
WDCU Premiership One
Saturday 8th July 2023

 Scorecard       

The 1st XI travelled south to Ayr on Saturday to face the Western Premiership One league leaders at New Cambusdoon in Alloway. It was a top versus bottom encounter, but following a morale-boosting win over Dumfries a week ago, the team was in buoyant mood and hopeful of gaining a good result.

The weather intervened however and the match was abandoned early in the Ayr innings after a second very lengthy stoppage due to heavy rain. It was the first time this season that the team had been unable to complete one of their league matches.

Put into bat by Ayr captain Michael English, the team started their innings with Tom Polkinghorne and Shailesh Prabhu. The pair made a cautious start but once again the opening partnership was unable to provide a sound start to the innings.

Ayr gained the breakthrough with the last ball of the seventh over. Opening bowler Scott McElnea, bowling from the clubhouse end, trapped Shailesh Prabhu (6) LBW with the score on 13.

This brought Lukas Fischer-Keogh to the middle to join Polkinghorne. But just three overs later, and with only another eight runs added to the score, Fischer-Keogh (4) played a loose shot to a ball from Matthew Baines and was easily caught by Robert Walsh at point.

In-form professional Rahul Dalal joined Polkinghorne and soon the pairing began to dominate the Ayr bowling.

By the end of the fourteenth over the score had doubled as Dalal and Polkinghorne took a liking to McElenea's bowling in particular and hit five well-timed boundaries.

A double change to the home bowling attack with Neil Flack and Michael English coming on to bowl subdued the run-scoring for the next six overs with only 12 runs added.

However, when Ayr made another change and introduced Puskar Bandhari to their attack, Dalal took an immediate liking to his bowling and smashed two sixes and a four from his first over and then a further nine runs from his second over, including another maximum hit over the boundary line.

Dalal's brutal burst of scoring led to another change from Ayr captain Michael English as he sought to quell the run-scoring.

Jonathan Woodhouse replaced Bandhari and although the rash of boundaries were reduced they were not altogether eliminated as Polkinghorne and Dalal remained in dominant mood against all that the home side could offer.

At the midway point in the innings after 25 overs teh score had moved on to 95 for the loss of the two early wickets and were looking good to build a very healthy total.

However the partnership between Polkinghorne and Dalal was eventually broken towards the end of the 33rd over when Polkinghorne got an edge to a ball from Woodhouse and was caught behind the wicket by Michael Miller.

The partnership had added 114 runs and taken the score to 135. Polkinghorne had played a fine supporting role to the pro, scoring 40 very valuable runs and showing an important return to form.

With the partnership broken, Ayr found their way back into the game and just two overs later gained the prize wicket of Dalal. The score had moved on to 155 when the professional mis-timed a ball from Woodhouse and was easily snapped up by Scott McElnea at mid-off. Dalal was on 90 just ten runs short of what would have been his fourth Premiership century of the season.

The innings was disrupted during the 39th over when heavy thundery rain caused play to be halted. On resumption, due to the length of the break, the innings had been reduced to one of 44 overs instead of the allotted 50 overs.

In the five overs remaining, the batsmen sought to get the team's total over 200 but in their efforts to score quick runs, a number of wickets were lost and only twelve runs were added. At the end of the 44th over the total had reached 190 runs for the loss of 8 wickets.

Unfortunately, the wet weather returned after less than three overs had been bowled in the Ayr innings. This time the downpour lasted so long that further play was not possible and the match was abandoned.