Berrington inspires first league win

William Dick • Published 7 Jun 2010 13:55 0 Comments

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RETURN: Berrington.

KEVIN McLaren paid tribute to his gutsy Greenock team-mates after they broke their SNCL duck with a comprehensive win over McCrea FS West at Hamilton Crescent on Saturday.

The Glenpark men, inspired by Richie Berrington's all-round heroics, triumphed by 52 runs but skipper McLaren rightly pointed out that this was a team effort and that the margin of success could have been greater.

He said: "There is a mixture of joy and relief right now because this result has been a long time coming.

"But every one of the guys deserves enormous credit because, despite five defeats in a row, the heads have never at any stage gone down.

"Even against West, there were stages when we could have let them get on top of us but that never happened because of our team spirit and a lot of individual determination."

One of the stages when West threatened to impose themselves was when Gregg Watson and Dougie Lockhart set out in pursuit of Greenock's 234-8 to reach 38-0.

However, having received a bit of stick, Berrington and Willie Rowan had their revenge as a wicket in each of five consecutive overs completely transformed the match.

Berrington was first to strike when he had Lockhart caught at mid-on by Ryan Begley, while Rowan trapped home skipper Ian Young lbw in the next over.

Berrington produced a brute of a delivery to bowl Watson for 23, Duncan Williams was caught off Rowan for 7 and Berrington removed Anjum Luthra for 7 to complete a remarkable sequence that reduced the Partick side to 53-5.

Their predicament intensified when they fell to 100-8 before Dave McNulty and Mohammed Kashif kept Greenock waiting.

The pair posted the equal highest stand of the match - 66 - and at one stage looked as if they might deny the visitors.

However, Kashif was run out for 28, while McNulty was the game's highest scorer, with 48, but also its final victim as West fell short.

Earlier West made the breakthrough when New Zealander Leighton Burtt had Andy Hislop caught behind with just seven on the board.

However, a 66-run stand between Rowan and Berrington put Greenock back on course.

Rowan sent two beautifully timed drives to the long-on boundary and took advantage of a missed catch in the slips to reach 26 before being trapped by Iqbal.

His departure signalled a mini-collapse during which the Glenpark men slumped to 115-5 with Moneeb Iqbal claiming the key wicket of Berrington, the leg-spinner bowling his Scotland colleague for 37.

However, not for the first time this season, Greenock teenager Alex Baum launched a spirited counter-attack which saw him top score with 42.

Dogged support from Sailesh Prabhu, Begley and Jon Hempsey allowed the visitors to post what proved to be a winning total.

Greenock have the chance to build on this success when they entertain Forfarshire on Saturday.

GREENOCK

A Hislop c Lockhart b Burtt 7

W Rowan lbw b Iqbal 26

R Berrington b Iqbal 37

C Bellwood run out 9

K McLaren b Kashif 19

A Baum c&b Kashif 42

S Prabhu c Iqbal b Talpur 18

R Begley c Kashif b Burtt 18

J Hempsey not out 25

D Wylie not out 3

Extras 27

Total (for eight) 234

Fall: 1-12 2-78 3-93 4-114 5-115 6-159 7-183 8-224.

Bowling: Burtt 10-0-52-2 McNulty 10-1-47-0 Talpur 10-0-59-1 Iqbal 10-0-24-2 Kashif 10-2-47-2.

McCREA FS WEST

D Lockhart c Begley b Berrington 9

G Watson b Berrington 23

I Young lbw b Rowan 1

M Iqbal b Wylie 16

D Williams c Prabhu b Rowan 7

A Luthra c Bellwood b Berrington 0

L Burtt b Bellwood 10

S Robertson c Baum b McLaren 13

D McNulty st Hislop b Bellwood 48

M Kashif run out 28

A Talpur not out 3

Extras 24

Total (all out, 45 overs) 182

Fall: 1-38 2-43 3-44 4-52 5-53 6-70 7-94 8-100

Bowling: Rowan 8-2-31-2 Berrington 10-1-44-3 Bellwood 7-0-39-2 Wylie 10-1-27-1 McLaren 10-0-39-1

This article appeared in Greenock Telegraph 07 Jun 10

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