Glenpark XI maintain push for title with big victory over Bute

Bute County & Cowal v Glenpark 1st XI
Western Championship Three
Saturday 9th August 2025

Glenpark XI 228   K Leema 69, Ma Ahmadzai 29, H Safi 23, M Ahmad 21; N Kennedy 4 for 22, A Guy 4 for 80
Bute County & Cowal 80   L Ware 68; Z Dilsoz 4 for 22, Ma Ahmadzai 3 for 5

Glenpark XI (25 pts) defeated Bute County & Cowal (0 pts) by 148 runs

Scorecard

The Glenpark XI had better luck with the weather than the 1st XI further south on the Firth of Clyde where the team had travelled to play bottom team Bute County & Cowal in a Western Championship Three league match at The Meadows in Rothesay.

Put in to bat after the toss was won by Bute County & Cowal, the team made a stuttering start. Early in the fourteenth over the score stood at 40 runs for the loss of 4 wickets with the first four batters back in the clubhouse.

However, a fifty run partnership from team captain Eddie Ahmad and Kurukulasuriya Leema got the innings back on track. And although immediately after the drinks break Ahmad was bowled by Adam Guy having scored 21 runs, the momentum created by the partnership continued when Mahmood Ahmadzai joined Leema.

The pair proceeded to put on a further 61 runs in just five overs with Ahmadzai the main aggressor. He smashed three 6s and a boundary as the Glenpark score rocketed to 151 for the loss of 6 wickets before he was bowled by Joe Kennedy having scored 29 runs from just 17 balls.

The remaining four Glenpark wickets produced another 77 runs to take the team total to 228 when the last wicket fell in the 36th over.

Kurukulasuriya Leema was top scorer for the visitors with 69 runs, while a last wicket partnership of 32 runs by Hami Safi (23 not out) and Mohammad Dilpory (13) took the team to a very commanding final innings score.

Bute County & Cowal got off to a rapid start in their innings with former Greenock 1st XI player Louis Ware hammering 20 runs via two sixes and two boundaries from the first over.

With little support from other batters, Ware continued to be the main threat as he continued to regularly dispatch the Glenpark bowling either to the boundary or over the boundary line for sixes.

Ware’s swashbuckling innings came to an end in the fifteenth over when he was caught by Ahmadzai off the bowling of Dilsoz for 68 with his teams score on 80 for the loss of 6 wickets. He had smashed five boundaries and seven 6s in his innings.

The departure of Ware heralded the end of the Bute reply as the remaining wickets fell without any addition to the score.

Zabiullah Dilsoz with 4 for 24 and Mahmood Ahmadzai 3 for 5 were the main Glenpark wicket-takers as the team maintained its top of the table position with just three games remaining in the league season.