Greenock are favourites

Roger Graham 1551 - 1551 • Published 22 May 2009 12:00

GREENOCK face the long trip to meet Aberdeenshire tomorrow hoping that their full-strength side will return with maximum points.

After two matchless Saturdays, the Glenpark men completed their first game of the competitive season last Saturday at home to champions Grange.

It ended in a merited win for the visitors in what was a modest game of cricket, much devalued by the absence of key players from both teams. The result dumped Greenock to bottom of the league but, with the reintroduction of a percentage system, they can bounce back up to the middle with a win tomorrow.

There was much talk at Glenpark last Saturday about the excessive demands of international cricket and subsequent loss of top players for club cricket. There is no doubt it devalues the league set-up, although that doesn"t seem greatly to concern Cricket Scotland.

There has to be a radical look at the game to see how conflict can best be avoided between clubs and international demands which are greater than ever before.

These demands are not accompanied by any obvious sign of significant strides forward, nor I suspect will that ever be the case.

As for tomorrow, Greenock will be considerably strengthened by the return of Wright, Dewald Nel and Cameron Borgas.

Last Saturday a combination of middle order fragility and some poor bowling led to ultimate defeat by Grange.

Two Scotland bowlers, Sean Weeraratna and Moneeb Iqbal, bowled a total of 16 overs for the loss of 101 runs for one wicket. Contrast that with the 19 overs bowled by veteran Dougie Wylie and Under-19 cap Willie Rowan who took four wickets for 54 runs.

Wylie did not appear until the 17th over by which time the visitors had a firm grip of the match. His typical frugality would have been welcome much earlier in order to try and apply some pressure to the champions. Added to that, the loss of 44 extras was almost criminal at this level.

Conditions in general were not conducive to great cricket, but it was mediocre fare served up by the two top teams in the country.

Despite a brief flurry of three wickets, Greenock were never really in the hunt in the second innings and Grange closed out the game with over eight overs to go.

The bright spots were half centuries by Shailesh Prabhu and Richie Berrington and decent bowling spells by Dougie Wylie and Willie Rowan.

Tomorrow should be quite another ball game, and it would be a shock if Greenock at virtually full strength were to go down for a second successive week.

Their only doubt concerns skipper Craig Wright who has a leg injury which caused him to miss the Saltires games during the week.

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This article appeared in Greenock Telegraph 22 May 09

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