1st XI easily defeated by Uddingston

Uddingston v Greenock 1st XI
Western Premiership Two
Saturday 25th July 2026

Greenock 1st XI 127   RT Lyons 5 for 27
Uddingston 128 for 1   F Clarke 48*, A Ramzan 47*

Greenock 1st XI (0 pts) lost to Uddingston (25 pts) by 9 wickets

Scorecard

The 1st XI travelled to play Uddingston with hope but once again returned to Glenpark with disappointment following a nine wicket defeat at Bothwell Policies. It had been a tall order for the relegation threatened side to outplay second top Uddingston, and so it proved.

Captain Toby Matthews won the toss and elected to bat. The team's openers, Cammy Calder and Avishek Neupane, made a decent start scoring 23 runs off the first six overs. But Calder fell to the first ball of the seventh over when he was caught by Ross Wilson from the bowling of home team captain Tom Willmott.

Neupane and Shailesh Prabhu continued to score steadily and by the end of the 14th over had progressed the score to 55.

Left arm slow bowler, Ross Lyons, removed Neupane for 25 midway through the 15th over. And with just eight more runs added to the score, Lyons picked up two more wickets in consecutive balls at the start of the 17th over.

The team's two Australian amateurs, Adam McGuirk and Toby Matthews, were the batters dismissed which left Greenock on 63 for 4 and the good start to the innings had suddenly been turned on its head.

The experienced pairing of Shailesh Prabhu and Chirag Pandher got together and tried to bring their side back into the game by adding 24 runs from the next five overs. But the partnership ended when Ross Wilson took his second catch of the match to remove Prabhu for 22 with the first ball of the 22nd over.

Pandher and Muhibullah Ahmadzai added 15 runs in a sixth wicket partnership. But when Ahmadzai provided Ross Lyons with his fourth wicket, caught and bowled for 14, to make it 102 for 6 wickets, the team were in deep trouble.

The ending of that partnership heralded the beginning of the end of the innings. Only a further twenty five runs got added in the thirteen overs that followed.

Pandher was dismissed for 13 runs just three balls after Ahmadzai had been removed and then only Greg McDougall (14) batting at number 10 put up any fight as the team were bowled out at the end of the 38th over.

For Uddingston, Ross Lyons with 5 wickets for 27 runs, was the Lanarkshire side's top performer.

In reply, Uddingston took just 24.2 overs to score the runs to give them victory, despite Matthews using eight bowlers in an attempt to stem the tide. Their only alarm came very early in the innings when opening bat Simon Umeed was dismissed, caught for just 3 runs, off the last ball of the fourth over which was bowled by Fahim Dinarkheil.

Fergus Clarke (48 not out) and Amaan Ramzan (47 not out) guided Uddingston to a very comfortable win which keeps them in second top position behind league leaders Kilmarnock.

So, with just five league fixtures remaining in the season, the 1st XI must somehow win two, or perhaps three, of these games, if they are to survive in the Western Premiership Two division.