Batting collapse leads to disappointing loss for 1st XI

Langside v Greenock 1st XI
Western Premiership Two
Saturday 28th June 2025

Greenock 1st XI 103   WN Jenkins 36; A Hafeez 5 for 18, KP Sridhar 3 for 13
Langside 105 for 4   MS Asif 42:*, S Badhan 31*

Greenock 1st XI (1 pt) lost to Langside (25 pts) by 6 wickets

Scorecard

The 1st XI's hope of moving up the league table, when they played at the south side of Glasgow on Saturday afternoon, was dashed when the team lost to Langside by 6 wickets. Instead of moving up the table, the Glenparkers slipped two places to seventh.

Having won the toss, Greenock opted to bat first. But very soon afterwards may have regretted having done so, as the team's batting talisman, Callum Henry, was bowled by Mahal with the very first ball of the match.

The loss of Henry so early was a hammer blow for the team. However, Shailesh Prabhu and team captain Aryan Sanghera got the innings moving, adding 35 runs before Prabhu (15) was bowled by Imad.

Will Jenkins and Sanghera then gradually got Greenock well into the game with a patient partnership of 45 runs which took the team's score to 80 for 2 after 23 overs.

It was to be the largest partnership of the innings and it ended when Sanghera tried to hit KP Sridhar through the off side, only to miss-time his shot as the ball flew off his bat to Hafeez who took a good catch fielding at slip. He was dismissed for 15 from 61 balls.

What followed Sanghera's dismissal was a monumental collapse as the innings disintegrated. The remaining seven wickets were captured by Langside for the addition of just 23 runs in the space of the next nine overs, leaving the 1st XI all out for 103.

Only Will Jenkins, who came in at the fall of the second wicket, emerged with any credit. He top scored with 36 runs before becoming the eighth wicket to fall when he provided a return catch to bowler Hafeez with the score on 98.

The manner of the team's batting collapse was hugely disappointing as a score of at least 160 had looked promising at one stage. And when the last wicket fell, the innings ended with sixteen overs remaining unused.

Anwar Hafeez with 5 wickets for just 18 runs, and KP Sridhar with 3 for 13 runs, proved to be the downfall of the innings. Their introduction to the Langside bowling attack at the beginning of the 20th over, when only two wickets had fallen, was the decisive move of the match.

Chasing a target of just 103 runs looked a pretty straightforward task for Langside to achieve. But when they had stumbled to 24 for the loss of 3 wickets there appeared to be a glimmer of hope for the visitors. But that was as good as it got as the Glasgow side lost only one other wicket as they reached their target in the 29th over.

MS Asif with 42 not out and S Badhan 31 not out produced the match winning partnership of 55 runs which gave Langside victory.

An outstanding diving catch low down to his right off his own bowling by Chirag Pandher to dismiss Anwar Hafeez, was one of only a very few highlights for Greenock during the Langside innings.