Greenock 183 all out in 49.4 overs (25 Points)

Prestwick 144 all out in 36.4 overs (3 Points)

GREENOCK gained a hugely important win against Prestwick on Saturday and in doing so kept hopes alive of retaining their place in the Western Premiership One division.

Not for the first time in recent weeks the unsettled weather caused issues in matches across the Premiership and at the Henry Thow Oval there was a rain interruption to play during the Prestwick innings.

The Duckworth Lewis Stern (DLS) system was referred to at the time of the rain interruption and showed Prestwick to be 21 runs behind the necessary run rate. This would have given Greenock the win had there been no further play.

However, as play was able to resume, and there were no further breaks for rain, the match was able to be played out in full.

Greg McDougall, the Greenock captain, won the pre-match coin toss and elected to bat first.

Greenock lost opening bat Shailesh Prabhu in just the second over but this brought together Tom Polkinghorne and Harry Briggs and the pair settled into a fine partnership.

After ten overs they had taken the score to 46 with Briggs, in particular, displaying some exciting attacking shots. In one over from Jonathan Hulme, he hit the Prestwick bowler for a four, a six and another four in consecutive balls.

By the end of 20 overs, Greenock had moved on to 86 with Polkinghorne and Briggs continuing to be comfortable with the home bowling.

But with 102 runs on the scoreboard, and immediately following a drinks break, the 98 run partnership was broken when Briggs was caught by wicket keeper Fleet from the bowling of Inderjit Singh for 54.

With a fine platform having been created, Greenock had the prospect of a high total to target with slightly more than 20 overs remaining and eight wickets in hand.

In-form Rahul Dalal joined Polkinghorne and the run-scoring tempo increased as the pro looked to put the team into a strong position.

However, an attempted six hit off the bowling of Singh found the safe hands of South African amateur Donovan Du Randt just inside the boundary line in front of the clubhouse in the 36th over and Dalal was returned to the ‘shed’ for 19 with the score on 138.

Despite the loss of Dalal, and also Lukas Fischer-Keogh soon afterwards, continued the run scoring at a good pace with Polkinghorne and Gregor Chambers cleverly alternating the strike with good running between the wickets.

But with the score on 172 in the 42nd over, Polkinghorne, who had been the anchor in Greenock’s batting, fell in similar fashion to Dalal when he was caught in the deep by Euan McBeth for a very creditable 62 runs.

The removal of Polkinghorne signalled a collapse. Greenock were all out for 183 with just two balls of the 50 over innings remaining.

Greenock made the best possible start after the tea interval by capturing the wicket of Prestwick’s second South African amateur Matthew Van Der Mescht with just the fourth ball of the very first over.

The important wicket of former professional Sachin Chaudhary was gained in the sixth over when he edged a delivery from Sam Sanghera and Lukas Fischer-Keogh took the catch behind the stumps. 

The game moved further in Greenock’s direction with the fall of more Prestwick wickets.

Prestwick were 68 for 6 after 18 overs and with 32 overs still to be played needed 116 runs to win at a rate of just 3.6 runs per over.

When play recommenced Greenock brought Sam Sanghera back on to bowl but the first over of his second spell went for ten runs with Du Randt and Rao each helping themselves to a boundary.

However, next over Chirag Pandher was brought into the attack and with his very first ball had Du Randt brilliantly stumped by Lukas Fischer-Keogh for 39 to make Prestwick 114 for 7.

Rao and Callan Turner added another 16 runs before Dalal picked up Prestwick’s eighth wicket by trapping Turner LBW for 6.

Greenock wrapped up the win in the 37th over. Firstly, Rao was run out by a piece of fine fielding from Aryan Sanghera when the Prestwick batsman set off for a run only to be turned back by his batting partner Ronan Alexander.

And just two balls later Alexander was bowled by McDougall to give Greenock an impressive and massively important third league win.

Chambers 2 for 25, Sanghera 2 for 45, Dalal 2 for 37 , McDougall 2 for 27 and Pandher 1 for 9 were the Greenock wicket-takers.

Four matches remain in the Premiership programme for Greenock to gain results to remain in the top division. The win at Prestwick will have given the team a real incentive to do so.

Greenock 2ndXI ‘Glenpark’ lost to league leaders Woodfarm by the margin of just 17 runs. Woodfarm scored 153 for 8 and Greenock were 136 all out. A 9th wicket stand of 38 by Adnan Afzal and Hamidullah Safi almost saw the team to victory before both were dismissed with just less than four overs of the innings remaining.. Ewan Stewart top scored with 25. A ‘Bairstowesque’ dismissal of batsman Vishal Yadav was an interesting feature during the Greenock innings.

Sunday’s ‘Hillend XI’ friendly against a Ferguslie XI was cancelled due to the wet weather Saturday overnight and during Sunday morning

Greenock Cricket Club is sponsored by Cleaning Supplies 4U