Under-strength 1st XI fall to disappointing defeat at Helensburgh

Greenock 1st XI v Helensburgh
Western Premiership Two
Saturday23rd August 2025

Greenock 1st XI 143   WN Jenkins 81; D Stephens 5 for 15
Helensburgh 144 for 6   C White 47*, C Lang 43

Greenock 1st XI (3 pts) lost to Helensburgh (25 pts) by 4 wickets

Scorecard

Success one week, disappointment the next. The 1st XI failed to capitalise on their Scottish Challenge Cup win last Sunday, and went down by 4 wickets to Helensburgh at Ardencaple on Saturday afternoon.

Put into bat by the home side who won the toss, they got off to a poor start. Both of the team's opening batsmen were removed in the space of three balls very early in the innings.

Firstly, Callum Henry was bowled by Fred Parffrey with just nine runs on the scoreboard. And then, just three balls later Aryan Sanghera hoisted the second ball of the third over of the match from Lance Trueman and presented an easy catch for Caelan Lang at mid-on.

Trueman then picked up the wicket of Shailesh Prabhu towards the end of the seventh over to leave the team struggling on 22 for the loss of 3 wickets.

The two best batting partnerships of the afternoon then got the innings back on track. Will Jenkins and Chirag Pandher added 32 runs for the fourth wicket and following that, Jenkins and Sam Sanghera put a further 61 runs on to the score before Sanghera was bowled by Duncan Stephens for 13.

At 115 for the loss of 5 wickets, but having only batted for 24 overs out of the 50 available, there was ample time to go on and build a score of around 200 and provide a challenging total for Helensburgh to chase.

However, the loss of Will Jenkins at the beginning of the 27th over was the beginning of the end. Jenkins was caught by former Greenock player Gregor Chambers after a very fine innings of 81 runs, just nineteen runs short of what would have been a well-deserved century. Jenkins had been the only batsman able to deal comfortably with the Helensburgh bowling attack.

Thereafter, a short six over partnership between Mubi Ahmadzai and PJ Bryceland was the last sign that Greenock might manage to build a decent total. Ahmadzai was out LBW to Stephens for 17 with the score on 139 and the remaining three wickets produced only four more runs to leave the innings closed on 143 after just 36.4 overs.

The inability of the Greenock batsmen to use up the 13.2 overs which were still available and which could have produced a significant number of runs, gave Helensburgh a huge advantage as they prepared to chase a score which needed less than 3 runs per over to overcome.

After the tea interval, the Helensburgh top order gave the 1st XI some hope that the game might be rescued. The first three batsmen found themselves back in the clubhouse with only 22 runs having been scored.

The home team's innings then followed a similar pattern to the 1st XI's earlier in the afternoon. A fourth wicket partnership of 34 runs between Caelan Lang and Lance Trueman settled the side, and then Lang and team captain Cameron White took the Ardencaple team past the one hundred mark.

With 104 runs showing on the scoreboard, Fahim Dinarkheil, in his second spell of bowling, captured the prize wicket of Lang caught at mid-wicket fending off a rising ball. Lang had scored 43 runs.

However, this was the point where the two teams differed. Whereas the 1st XI crumbled after the loss of Jenkins, Helensburgh were able to continue towards their target without too much alarm.

Only one more wicket fell as White 47 not out and Fred Parffrey 20 not out put together an unbeaten 39 run partnership which took the home side to a four wicket win with just 2.1 overs remaining.

In the end, their patient 13.4 over partnership producing 39 runs compared to the 1st XI's collapse, losing their last four wickets for just four runs and leaving 13.2 overs unused, was the difference between the teams.