Under-strength 1st XI unable to halt Kilmarnock's momentum

Greenock 1st XI v Kilmarnock
Western Premiership Two
Saturday 6th June 2026

Kilmarnock 213   S Bukhari 32; Mu Ahmadzai 3 for 25, A Sanghera 3 for 40
Greenock 1st XI 145   A McGuirk 35, Ma Ahmadzai 30

Greenock 1st XI (1 pt) lost to Uddingston (25 pts) by 68 runs

Scorecard

A significantly understrength 1st XI lost to Kilmarnock by 68 runs at Glenpark on Saturday afternoon. The result, which gave the Ayrshire side their fifth win out of six matches played, moved them in to joint top position in the Western Premiership Two league table.

For the 1st XI, the result places a huge significance on the results of the next three league matches which takes the league programme to its half way mark. The games are all against teams in the lower half of the league. Win them all and thoughts of relegation pressure will be eased, if not entirely removed, lose even one and the second half of the season will be a tense couple of months.

Consistency of selection has been an issue for the side since the start of the season and Saturday provided the biggest problem yet with six regular first team players all missing due to work commitments or illness, Shailesh Prabhu, Cammy Calder, Nikhil Kadyan, Chirag Pandher, Sam Sanghera and Fahim Dinarkhiel.

Aryan Sanghera won the toss and opted to bowl first. But without either of his two frontline pace bowlers, Dinarkhiel and Calder, available to spearhead the attack, the Killie top order batters were quickly on top.

The score raced to 99 for the loss of one wicket after just 14 overs, as the Kilmarnock batsmen took full advantage of some friendly and wayward bowling.

However, the introduction into the attack of the Club's two Australian amateurs, Toby Matthews and Adam McGuirk, at the start of the 14th and 15th overs made an immediate impact.

McGuirk captured the wicket of Syed Bukhari (32) with just his second delivery in the 15th over when the Killie batsman hoisted a catch to Aryan Sanghera and two overs later McGuirk trapped Killie captain Flanagan LBW for 29.

Matthews and McGuirk's accurate off spin bowling slowed the visitors' run-scoring rate and gradually brought their team back in to the match. And when Matthews bowled Gurupreet Singh (17) at the end of the 28th over it heralded a spell when they quickly picked up another three wickets to take the Kilmarnock score to 185 for 7 in the 39th over.

Mubi Ahmadzai was the bowler who did the damage, taking all three of the wickets in a five over spell.

Kilmarnock were all out for 213 in the 47th over having looked at one stage early in the innings as though they might score well over 300. But the innings score might have been considerably less had the bowling not been so profligate with 45 wides and a total of 57 extras.

Not for the first time this season, the 1st XI's innings got off to a poor start with three wickets falling for just 32 runs within the first ten overs. But a good fifth wicket partnership of 29 runs between Adam McGuirk and Mubi Ahmadzai looked to be giving them a chance of challenging Kilmarnock's total until McGuirk was run out for 35.

In earlier matches this season, McGuirk's wicket would have led to a middle / lower order collapse but not so in this match. Instead, the remaining batsmen added a further 68 runs before the innings came to an end on 145 with young Mahmood Ahmadzai playing a fine innings of 30 from just 33 deliveries.

Next for the team are the three important fixtures against Hillhead, Helensburgh and Mearns as the league programme moves toward its mid-point.