1st XI play Mearns seeking an improved performance

The 1st XI are at home to Mearns CC this Saturday as the Western Premiership Two reaches its mid-point of the season. The first half has not gone as the Club would have wished and the team occupies a lowly position in the league table. That position can be improved though if the team can secure a win at Glenpark on Saturday afternoon.

Opponents Mearns CC were stranded at the bottom of the league table for the first five rounds of matches with no wins to their name. But in early June, a win over East Kilbride signalled a change in their fortunes and a second win two weeks ago over Helensburgh moved them up to seventh spot.

The south side of Glasgow team are playing their home matches at Stirling County's ground and although they have lost five out of the seven matches played, they have been competitive in most of them.

Their lowest score was 120 against current league leaders Kilmarnock in round 3, while their highest 227 was scored just two weeks ago when the team gained a fine win against Helensburgh.

On that occasion, an opening partnership of 86 runs from Ketan Sharma and Simon Machado gave the team a fine platform to build a substantial total. Sharma (46) and Machado (46) were well supported by a number of others, most notably by Anulome Kishore (43 not out) coming in at number 9 in the batting order.

As a bowling unit, Mearns have a number of bowlers who can cause damage. Their opening attack is regularly Anish Gadgil and Sagar Suman and they have had a number of successes against opposition top order batters.

But against Helensburgh, it was Siddharth Wadhwani who took 5 for 43 from his 10 overs coming on as fourth change bowler who did the major damage. And vice-captain Anulome Kishore has also had a couple of good performances with the ball.

The Mearns team has gained confidence in the last month from their two wins. While the bowling attack has not quelled run-scoring against teams they have played, the 1st XI will do well to contain their run-scoring abilities on Saturday.

A much improved team performance from that which lost to Helensburgh last Saturday will be crucial against Mearns. The match started well enough for Greenock, but having had the visitors 87 for 6, the team did not drive home that good position and allowed Helensburgh to finish on 153 all out with just one ball of their 40 overs innings remaining.

A positive for the team is that they welcome back Cammy Calder who has missed a number of recent league matches due to his work having taken him down to the south west of England. And he made a useful return in the Midweek League match at Ferguslie with 20 runs and 1 wicket for 14 runs.

Run-scoring has been the team's achilles heel for most of the season and is the main area where improvement is needed.

Last Saturday, Usman Mansoor and Shailesh Prabhu made a decent start to the Innings with a partnership of 43 runs. But not for the first time this year, the wheels came off when Mansoor was dismissed as they collapsed to 84 for 7 and could not find batters in the lower order who could do enough to rescue the position.

This Saturday afternoon, building a total with partnerships developed through hard work, concentration and a willingness to play for the team will be crucial. A third win as the league programme reaches its mid-point would give the team and its supporters a boost as the second half of the season looms large.

For Saturday, the selected team again shows a number of changes due to availability issues.

The Glenpark XI are away on Saturday against Hamilton Crescent, West of Scotland's third eleven, the match being played at Stirling's ground, New Williamfield. Selection will again be an issue with the changes that have been required for the 1st XI. The lack of a settled team has been an issue all season and culminated in last weekend's heavy defeat against Anniesland.

Sunday sees the Hillend XI travel to Stirling to take on Mearns Masters in the Sunday League whilst Glenpark sees the Senior XI, captained by Tom Black, take on the Forty (XL) Club.

The squad selected for this game includes some well-known names making a comeback and should provoke considerable interest amongst supporters of the Club.

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