1st XI overcome promotion-chasing Kelburne

Greenock 1st XI v Kelburne
WDCU Premiership Two
Saturday 17th August 2024

 Scorecard       

The 1st XI moved up into fourth top position in the Western Premiership Two following a fine five wicket win over promotion chasing second top Kelburne at Glenpark on Saturday.

Having won all nine of their matches in the first half of the league season, Kelburne looked odds-on to win the Western Premiership Two division, but the second half of the season has produced a quite different outcome.

The Paisley side has now lost four matches out of the six completed in the second half of the league programme, with one other abandoned due to wet weather, and are just clinging on to the second top position.

Saturday's win over Kelburne means that the 1st XI can still manage to finish in third top position if the team can overcome Irvine next Saturday and then Renfrew in the final league fixture.

There was a delayed start to Saturday's match against Kelburne as the weather in the couple of days prior to the match had caused the bowlers' run-ups to remain too wet for play to start at the normal 12 noon time. Instead it took until 2.30pm for the umpire to allow play to begin, but with a reduced 35 overs per side match.

Connor Nowlan won the toss and opted to put Kelburne in to bat in the knowledge that their recent batting form indicated a number of low scores and perhaps a lack of batting confidence. What followed from the visitors' batsmen showed that the decision to insert Kelburne was well made.

The Paisley side managed to put just twelve runs on to the scoreboard before South African, Juan Steyn, became the first wicket to fall. Caught by Cammy Calder at cover point for 4 runs, Steyn was the first of three wickets which Angus Tolhurst picked up as the Kelburne team struggled to get their innings moving.

Next to go, with the first ball of the eighth over, was Alex Gilmour who was bowled by Tolhurst for just 3 runs with the score on 24. Then midway through the fourteenth over Jamie Cook, who had scored 27 out of the 37 runs on the board, was stumped by Chirag Pandher. Cook was Tolhurst's third wicket and it signalled a mid-innings collapse as the Kelburne team slumped from 37 for the loss of 3 wickets to 42 for 6 in the 20th over.

David Graham and Ryan Murray then built the largest partnership of the innings scoring 22 runs in the next seven overs before Graham was bowled for 10 by Inam Khan. And Kelburne's dismal batting performance was complete soon afterwards as the final three wickets fell for the addition of just another 14 runs. The Paisley side were all out for 78 in the 32nd over.

Sam Sanghera with 4 wickets for 14 runs, spread over two spells of bowling, was the most successful bowler with Angus Tolhurst 3 for 15 the other main wicket-taker.

The team's task seemed straightforward as they needed to score just 79 runs to win from the 35 overs available. But then, something similar had been the test when they had been required to score 134 runs from 50 overs against Kilmarnock two weeks previously and failed by 9 runs to gain the win.

And on Saturday, the innings once again started badly. The team were three wickets down for just 23 runs inside the first six overs. Connor Nowlan was LBW to pace bowler Steyn for 4 with the last ball of the first over. Shailesh Prabhu was run out in the fifth over and then in the very next over Aryan Sanghera skied a ball from Dougie Wylie and was caught by Steyn.

And worse followed as the battes looked to be making a difficult task out of what should have been a relatively simple one.

Cammy Calder and Sam Sanghera were both given out LBW as the score became 5 wickets down for 40 with just 10 overs bowled and still in need of another 39 runs to get the win.

However, all was well on this occasion, as Chirag Pandher and Angus Tolhurst made short work of scoring the remaining runs needed to give the team the win.

Inside the next seven overs, Pandher and Tolhurst punished the Kelburne bowlers by scoring eight boundaries as they eased the team to an eventual fine five wicket win.

Tolhurst was not out 17 with three boundaries scored while Pandher was unbeaten on 26 with six boundaries, and he completed the win for the team in dramatic style with a huge hit which crashed into the clubhouse, smashing one of the front windows!