Greenock Cricket Club made the most of their Cricket Scotland Challenge Cup good fortune last week when they progressed to the third round of the tournament on Sunday.
The Glenpark side needed the toss of a coin to book their place in the second round after the rain put paid to all their attempts to play their opening match at home to Dundee HSFP – but they required no such good fortune when they swept aside Kilmarnock on home turf.
The Ayrshire team were dismissed for just 98 when they batted first, with Lombard the only batsman to make a show with 41; there were two wickets apiece for Calder, Muhibullah Ahmadzai, McDougall and newcomer Leema.
When Greenock batted, they wasted little time in reaching their target, taking just 15.3 overs to reach 102 for 3, Callum Henry finishing with an unbeaten 53 to see his team home in style.
Motherwell or Dunfermline Carnegie await Greenock in the next round, the match due to be played at Glenpark on Sunday, July 13; these two teams play off next Sunday to decide who goes forward.
Sunday’s victory went some way to compensating for disappointment on Saturday when defeat away to Langside saw Greenock slip two places in the league table.
Having won the toss, Greenock opted to bat first, but very soon afterwards may have regretted having done so, as the team’s batting talisman, Callum Henry, was dismissed with the very first ball of the match.
The loss of Henry so early was a hammer blow for the team, though Shailesh Prabhu and team captain Aryan Sanghera got the innings moving, adding 35 runs before Prabhu (15) was bowled by Imad.
But it was to be the largest partnership of the innings, and it ended when Sanghera tried to hit KP Sridhar through the off side, only to mistime his shot and watch as the ball flew off his bat to Hafeez who took a good catch fielding at slip, with the captain dismissed for 15 from 61 balls.
Sanghera’s dismissal was followed by a monumental collapse as Greenock’s innings disintegrated; the remaining seven wickets were captured by Langside for the addition of just 23 runs in the space of the next nine overs, leaving Greenock all out for 103.
Only Jenkins, who came in at the fall of the second wicket, emerged with any credit; he top scored with 36 runs before becoming the eighth wicket to fall when he provided a return catch to bowler Hafeez with the score on 98.
The manner of the team’s batting collapse was hugely disappointing as a score of at least 160 had looked promising at one stage - and when the last wicket fell, Greenock’s innings ended with 16 overs remaining unused
Anwar Hafeez with five wickets for just 18 runs, and KP Sridhar with three for 13, proved to be the downfall of the Greenock innings; their introduction to the Langside bowling attack at the beginning of the 20th over, when only two Greenock wickets had fallen, was the decisive move of the match.
Chasing a target of just 103 runs looked pretty straightforward for Langside to achieve, though when the home team stumbled to 24 for 3, there appeared to be a glimmer of hope for the visitors.
Ms Asif with 42 not out and S. Badhan on 31 not out produced the match winning partnership of 55 runs which gave Langside victory; an outstanding diving catch low down to his right off his own bowling by Chirag Pandher to dismiss Anwar Hafeez, was one of only a very few highlights for Greenock during the Langside innings.
Meanwhile, Greenock’s second XI, Glenpark, maintained their 100 per cent league record on Saturday when they comfortably defeated Kirkstyle by 134 runs.
Skipper Eddie Ahmad made 50 on home turf, and Usman Mansoor 47, as the Glenparkers amassed 203 for 9 in their 40 overs.
In reply, Kirkstyle were dismissed for just 69 in 18 overs.
Greenock Cricket Club is sponsored by Cleaning Supplies 4U.
