1st XI make disappointing start to league season

Greenock 1st XI v Kilmarnock
Western Premiership Two
Saturday 3rd May 2025

Greenock 1st XI 161   CJ Henry 38, SS Sanghera 30; A Wilson 3 for 25
Kilmarnock 162 for 5   MA Islam 39*, P Flanagan 34

Greenock 1st XI (3 pts) lost to Kilmarnock (25 pts) by 5 wickets

Scorecard

The curtain lifted on the Western Premiership Two season at a sun-drenched Glenpark on Saturday, but the opening act saw the visiting Kilmarnock side emerge victorious after a keenly contested affair

Having won the crucial toss, Kilmarnock skipper Paul Flanagan opted to bowl first, a decision that ultimately laid the groundwork for their successful chase later in the day.

The 1st XI's innings commenced very positively with openers Callum Henry and team captain Aryan Sanghera at the crease. In the very first over, Sanghera hit a fine straight drive to the Fox Street boundary and then in the second over, Aussie amateur Henry, making his Glenpark debut, struck two fine boundaries to put teh team on 15 without loss.

However, the Kilmarnock opening bowlers, Tom McFadzean and Zeeshan Qamar, quickly found their length and line and put the brakes on the two openers as only three runs were added in the following five overs.

Sanghera and Henry did though get back into run-scoring mode and by the sixteenth over the score had moved on to 76

A bowling change at the beginning of the seventeenth over heralded a change of direction in the match. With just his second ball, slow bowler Adam Wilson lured Sanghera into a big hit and the captain was caught on the Fox Street boundary and dismissed for 27.

Kilmarnock then quickly captured the wicket of Henry when the Aussie amateur got a faint edge to a ball from their South African amateur Daniel Lombard and was caught behind the wicket. So the team found themselves on 83 for 2 in the 20th over. Henry scored 38.

Three further wickets fell as the middle order struggled to deal with the Killie bowlers and towards the end of the 23rd over the home score was a precarious 93 for the loss of five wickets.

The experience of Sam Sanghera, who came in at number six in the batting line-up, helped to steady the innings and gradually the home score moved along. But wickets continued to fall and no really meaningful partnerships were created. And when Sanghera was the team's eighth wicket to fall, adjudged LBW for 30 runs in the 40th over, the innings had crept along to 150.

Just a further 11 runs were added before the innings ended on 161 towards the end of the 45th over. The inability to forge a substantial partnership after the opening 76 runs put on by Aryan Sanghera and Callum Henry ultimately proved costly.

For Kilmarnock, Adam Wilson with 3 wickets for 25 runs was their top bowler.

Kilmarnock's chase began with the 1st XI's opening bowlers, Will Jenkins and Sam Sanghera, aiming to make early inroads. But it was a mix up between the Ayrshire side's openers which led to a very early breakthrough when Chaudhary was run out off just the second ball of the innings.

Jenkins, bowling with with pace and aggression, then had Haider Iqbal caught for 5 with the score on 12 and the team had made a perfect start to the second half of the match.

A third wicket captured when Lombard had his stumps knocked back by Jenkins for 6 runs with the score on 32 could have brought a collapse from Kilmarnock, but Oelofse and Flanagan steadied the innings with a 50 run partnership which ended at the start of the 18th over when Oelofse was smartly caught by Sehmat Pandher for 28 off the bowling of Greg McDougall.

And, as so often happens after a good partnership, one wicket leads to a second. Two overs later McDougall and Pandher combined once again to remove Flanagan for 34.

But that was to be the final breakthrough, as Mo Islam and Qamar forged a match-winning sixth wicket partnership of 79 runs to take Kilmarnock to what had seemed at one stage an unlikely win.

For the 1st XI, while the loss will be disappointing, the contributions of Australian newcomers, Callum Henry and Will Jenkins, will offer a significant positive for the season ahead.

The team will now need to regroup and learn from this encounter as they look towards their next challenge in the Western Premiership Two.