1st XI away from home again as they seek first league win

For the third Saturday in succession, the 1st XI will take to the road and travel away from Glenpark for their Western Premiership Two league match. Three away fixtures to start a season is highly unusual and the team will certainly hope that the match against East Kilbride will provide a win to get their league season moving in a more positive direction following losses to Langside and Dumfries.

The team has had a tough start to the league programme with fixtures against two of the sides who are likely to finish in the top half of the table. In contrast, East Kilbride have played two of the sides who many regard as likely to finish in the lower half of the league and have one win and one loss to their credit.

So this Saturday, the 1st XI must produce much better form than in the opening matches to gain their first win of the league season or risk becoming stranded at the foot of the table.

Two weeks ago, East Kilbride were well beaten by Hillhead, but last Saturday gained an encouraging first league win against Helensburgh. Star man of that match was Shahid Abbasi batting in the middle order, who scored 103 not out from just 81 balls received.

Abbasi will be a key wicket for Greenock to gain but he is not the only player in the team who can score runs. The top three batters, Gavin Meikle, Arman Khalil and Stewart Kampman are experienced players who have potential to score well but have yet to do so in the matches played so far.

South African Driann Swanevelder, who is the team's overseas amateur, is a batting / bowling allrounder. He bats in the middle order and made a useful contribution of 36 runs against Helensburgh last Saturday.

Swanevelder will also open the bowling for East Kilbride alongside Mo Afzaal. Neither picked up a wicket in the opening match against Hillhead but Afzaal had figures of 3 wickets for 19 runs from ten overs against Helensburgh.

While the 1st XI can discuss how to target the opposition while in the field, it is the team's own batting form which may well hold the key to the match outcome.

Last Saturday, they were bowled out in under 30 overs which meant that more 20 overs were left unused. It will be important, if batting first against East Kilbride, that the team uses up all of its 50 over allocation.

Each player needs to focus on their individual job and have patience to build an innings. If partnerships can be established during the team's innings then a substantial total can be built which will challenge the opposition and give the bowlers a better opportunity to gain wickets.

In the first couple of matches the top order batters have been unable to provide a solid base to the innings which the middle order could take forward. So getting a sound start at the Torrance House ground on Saturday afternoon will be important.

Team captain Aryan Sanghera and Adam McGuirk may well continue to open the innings and will be aware of the responsibility on their shoulders for a sound start. McGuirk gained time in the middle in a Sunday League fixture last weekend at Kelburne and will look to add more runs at the Torrance House ground.

The team's other Aussie amateur, Toby Matthews, was also in the runs at Kelburne, scoring a fine century. So if both players can reproduce some of that form then a challenging total could be set.

All is set then for an interesting afternoon of cricket at The Torrance House ground, and for Greenock, a win needs to be the outcome.

Saturday's team shows three changes from the side that lost to Dumfries with Bryceland, Mansoor and McDougall replacing the Ahmadzai brothers and Ronnie Singh.

The Glenpark XI welcome East Kilbride's second string, Torrance House, to Glenpark on Saturday and will be keen to improve on last weekend's disappointing display against Nunholm. The selected side shows a number of changes from last Saturday's team and they will look for an improvement in all aspects fo the game.

Last Sunday, the Hillend XI began their Sunday League Division One season with a closely fought encounter against Kelburne with the Paisley side coming out on top on their own ground. This Sunday the venue is reversed and Hillend will hope that the same thing happens with the result.

The Club is grateful for the continued sponsorship from Ethos Group.