Back to league business for 1st XI as Glenpark XI chase the title

The 1st XI return to league cricket this weekend after their Cricket Scotland Challenge Cup triumph over Edinburgh CC in the final last Sunday.

Just two matches remain in this season's Western Premiership Two league programme and the team travel round to the other side of the Clyde to play Helensburgh at their Ardencaple ground this Saturday.

It is a match which is important for Helensburgh, as they are in a relegation battle with Irvine, Glasgow Accies and East Kilbride. The 1st XI, on the other hand, are in mid-table and involved in neither promotion nor relegation.

Helensburgh started the season with a fine, but perhaps unexpected, win over Stirling County who were one of the teams fancied to do well this season and indeed are currently in a challenging position for promotion to the Premier Division.

However, that first week win was a false dawn for the Argyll & Bute team which then went on a run of seven straight defeats and only gained their second win in mid-July. A further three defeats then followed anchoring Helensburgh at the foot of the table and seemingly destined for relegation.

But in the last two weeks, they have found form and vanquished both Irvine and East Kilbride. The latter match was particularly impressive as the team overcame their opponents 235 for 9 innings score to win by a very convincing 5 wicket margin.

So any thoughts the 1st XI may have had that this match would be a straightforward 25 point win need to be cast aside and a very sound, focussed performance will be needed to return with a win from Ardencaple.

The 1st XI will field a team which shows three changes from the cup-winning side of last weekend. Unavailable are Harry Briggs, Cammy Calder and Sehmat Pandher and into the side come Shailesh Prabhu, PJ Bryceland and Sudeep Chaudhary.

The three unavailable players will be missed as they all played important roles for the team last Sunday. Briggs steadied the innings along with Will Jenkins after the early dismissals of both Aryan Sanghera and Callum Henry got the innings off to a potentially devastating start.

The two batters stood up to a very difficult period of intense pace bowling as Edinburgh searched for a third wicket which could have caused the innings to crumble. Instead, they put the side back into the match and saw the Edinburgh side's early enthusiasm wane as a fine partnership developed.

The experienced former 1st XI captain, Shailesh Prabhu, returns to the side having missed out on a place in the cup final team. He will bat high up in the top order and will recall playing his first game for Greenock almost 20 years ago at the Ardencaple ground.

On that occasion he scored a century for the 2nd XI and was immediately elevated to the 1st XI, shortly afterwards becoming a member of the 2007 Scottish Cup winning team against Carlton.

Prabhu, who has been a regular 1st XI player ever since, has the capability of scoring another century at Ardencaple on Saturday, which would be very welcome!

Cammy Calder and Sehmat Pandher will be a loss to the Greenock bowling attack and, as none of the three replacements for the unavailable players are bowlers, it means the work will shared by a smaller bowling unit than normal.

Pace bowler Fahim Dinarkheil will possibly be joined in the opening attack by right arm slower bowler Mu Ahmadzai who was a major architect of the Edinburgh batting collapse last Sunday with 4 wickets for 18 runs. Others who will bowl will be Sam Sanghera, Will Jenkins, Chirag Pandher and Greg McDougall.

A sound all round performance from the team should be enough to bring back the points to Glenpark, but an awareness that Helensburgh are fighting to avoid relegation and have secured two fine wins from their last two league matches should not be overlooked.

The Glenpark XI meet with third top Clydesdale Bees at Glenpark on Saturday knowing that a win will almost certainly give the team the league title.

The side is 11 percentage points ahead of Mearns Challengers in second top spot and 15 percentage points ahead of Clydesdale Bees.

The team has performed well throughout the season and lost only one match in the league programme. Team captain Eddie Ahmad is able to field a strong side for this important match.

The Hillend XI gained a fine midweek league win against Ferguslie at Meikleriggs, Paisley on Tuesday evening in their last match of the season.

Batting first, Hillend sccored 161 for 4 wickets with Mohammad Zeeshan 46 and Mubi Ahmadzai 43 the team's top scorers. In reply, Ferguslie were 124 for 5 wickets giving Hillend a winning margin of 37 runs.

This result means that the team finished in a very creditable third top position in this, their first season in the Midweek League.

The Club is grateful for the continued sponsorship from Cleaning Supplies 4U.