By Peter Hempsey

GREENOCK are back on home turf on Saturday for their Western Premiership One match versus West of Scotland.

Earlier in the season, the Glenpark side gained a good win over the Glasgow club at their famous Hamilton Crescent ground and the players will be keen to do the double this weekend.

Back in May, at the conclusion of the match won by Greenock, West were sitting in mid-table having won two and lost two of the four games played.

Since then the Glasgow side have lost only once and won seven league games and now occupy second top spot behind leaders Ayr and just marginally ahead of Ferguslie.

So it will be quite a task for Greenock to get the better of West for a second time this season.

But due to their lowly league position, Greenock have a real will to win. And, of course, the team know that they can get the better of West.

The team to play on Saturday will show three changes from last Saturday’s loss at Ferguslie. Unavailable are Nikhil Kadyan, Tom Forrest and Chirag Pandher. Also still out due to work commitments are Shailesh Prabhu and Cammy Calder.

Coming into the team are Chris Hempsey, Jamie Nowell and PJ Bryceland.

Team Captain Greg McDougall said: “Saturday’s match against West is a big game for us. Although we have a number of players unavailable who might have featured in the game, we have eleven players who will give their all to achieve a second win over West.

“The players have been working hard in training and if we can bat and bowl as I know we can, then a win for us is definitely possible.”

In Rahul Dalal, Greenock have a professional who has delivered with the bat in numerous league matches so far. He scored a winning unbeaten century against West in May and has also made unbeaten centuries against Prestwick and Stenhousemuir as well as 90 against league leaders Ayr.

Another big innings from Dalal on Saturday will give Greenock a great chance of another win.

But others in the side must work hard to support him and build important partnerships.

Tom Polkinghorne and Lukas Fischer-Keogh have both had good partnerships with Dalal during the season and if they can spend an extended time out in the middle on Saturday, Greenock could be on track to give West a very challenging afternoon.

Others in Saturday’s side who could provide important runs include Harry Briggs, Chris Hempsey and Gregor Chambers.

However, key to getting a big total is building partnerships and to do so the players need to concentrate and graft when they get out into the middle. And if batting first it will be crucial to bat all the way through the 50 overs of the innings.

Former Greenock player Mo Iqbal is West’s leading run-scorer with 406 league runs averaging 67.67. He joined them at the start of the season from Uddingston and is a former Scottish senior international.

He has played for a number of clubs currently in the Premiership, including Greenock back in 2009.

However, Iqbal is likely to be unavailable as he has been called in as one of the backroom coaching team to assist Scotland Interim Head Coach, Doug Watson for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Europe Qualifier competition.

Without him West will be weakened. But the Glasgow side are far from being a one man team.

But it may be the weather that Saturday’s match will have to beat. The forecast is an unsettled one with low pressure and lots of rain heading in the Glenpark direction.

Greenock’s 1stXI team for the match against West of Scotland at Glenpark on Saturday will be: GJ McDougall, HR Briggs, PJ Bryceland, GM Chambers, RR Dalal, LC Fischer-Keogh, CJK Hempsey, J Nowell, T Polkinghorne, A Sanghera, S Sanghera.

Scorer: R McGregor The match on Saturday at Glenpark will start at 12noon

Greenock’s 2ndXI face Clydesdale 4thXI in Glasgow. The team for the match will be from : E Ahmad capt., M Ahmadzai, S Chaudhary, J Hutchinson, L McCahill, N Nagaraju, E Norris, H Safi. S Safi, E Stewart, V Yadav,

The match v Clydesdale 4thXI at Hamilton Palace will start at 12noon.

Greenock Cricket Club is sponsored by Cleaning Supplies 4U