By Peter Hempsey

BUOYED up by last weekend’s win over Dumfries, Greenock travel to meet top of the table Ayr at their picturesque ground New Cambusdoon in Alloway.

It is a top versus bottom match, but the Ayrshire side are not invincible and Greenock will feel that with a good team performance a positive result can be secured.

Key to last weekend’s important win was another fine batting performance from Indian professional Rahul Dalal. He scored an unbeaten 74 runs from just 54 balls and took his season’s tally of runs in the Western Premiership One to 538 with an average score of 89.67.

Only Michael English of Ayr has scored more runs in the Western Premiership One. The former Ferguslie player, who is an amateur and has been at Ayr for the past few seasons, has amassed 759 runs.

Neil Flack, the former Greenock 1stXI captain who transferred to Ayr at the beginning of season 2022, is sixth highest run scorer with 329 runs.

Table toppers Ayr had a fine first half of the season with their only defeat coming against West of Scotland, a team which Greenock beat earlier in the season at Hamilton Crescent in Glasgow.

When Greenock and Ayr met at Glenpark on the second Saturday of the season, the visitors ran out winners by 113 runs. 

The New Cambusdoon team rely a great deal on English and Flack getting their innings off to a sound start and then going on to score plenty of runs. Dismissing either or both early would be a big boost for the Glenpark side on Saturday.

Greenock will field a team this Saturday which shows some changes to the side which gained the win against Dumfries last weekend. Unavailable are Harry Briggs, Jonathan Hempsey and Usman Mansoor, while into the side comes Chirag Pandher, Sam Sanghera and Ewan Stewart.

This Saturday’s line-up also shows five changes to the one which played against Ayr earlier in the season. It is a more experienced side, Shailesh Prabhu available and likely to open the innings with either Tom Polkinghorne or Lukas Fischer-Keogh.

Fischer-Keogh, who is in the U/19 Scottish 2023 squad, has shown that he has the potential to be a very useful top order batsman as well as being the team wicketkeeper.

He has the confidence to take on opposition bowlers and score quickly which can put early pressure on opposition bowlers. At the same time he is gaining experience by regularly batting alongside club pro Rahul Dalal.

The importance of Dalal in the Greenock line-up is significant. As well as the runs he contributes himself, he helps develop others with whom he spends time out in the middle.

Nikhil Kadyan made a promising debut against Dumfries and formed a good batting partnership with Dalal which produced 58 runs. He then bowled six overs of left arm spin for just 26 runs which also demonstrated that he will be a fine all rounder for the team.

And all rounder Gregor Chambers has featured in several good partnerships with Dalal. Another on Saturday would be welcome for the team.

Greenock’s bowling, which is spearheaded by Chambers, will need to be accurate and well managed by team captain Greg McDougall. 

Saturday’s match will be a good test for the Greenock players following the boost to their morale and confidence gained from the victory over Dumfries.

If they show focus and application throughout the match, there just might be a result which brings back useful points to Glenpark.

Greenock’s 1stXI team for the match against Ayr at New Cambusdoon on Saturday will be: GJ McDougall, GM Chambers, RR Dalal, LC Fischer-Keogh, N Kadyan, T Polkinghorne, CS Pandher, SS Prabhu, A Sanghera, S Sanghera, EA Stewart

Scorer: R McGregor The match on Saturday at New Cambusdoon in Alloway will start at 12noon

Greenock’s 2ndXI had their match last Saturday conceded when opponents Blackhill were unable to field a team. This Saturday, opponents Galloway 2ndXI make the long journey to Glenpark from Gatehouse of Fleet The team for the match will be: E Ahmad capt., M Ahmadzai, S Chaudhary, P Hempsey, I Khan, L McCahill, N Nagaraju, E Norris, C Prabhu, S Safi. DC Sharma.

The match against Galloway 2ndXI is scheduled to start at Glenpark at 12noon.

On Sunday, the Greenock 'Hillend XI' plays a Ferguslie XI at Meikleriggs in Paisley.  The team will be A Sanghera capt., T Forrest,  S Sanghera, E Stewart,  N Kadyan,  V Yadav, M Ahmadzai, C Calder,  C Pandher , E Norris, .H Safi

Greenock Cricket Club is sponsored by Cleaning Supplies 4U