Greenock seek win in final away match
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GREENOCK Cricket Club travel to Irvine this Saturday seeking to gain a win from their last away match of the season.
When the two sides met earlier in the season, towards the end of June, Greenock emerged victorious by five wickets at the end of an absorbing afternoon of cricket at Glenpark.
Irvine batted first and scored 164 before being all out with three of their 50 overs remaining.
Sri Lankan professional Sachin Jayawardena was the Ayrshire side’s main run scorer with 65 before playing on to his stumps from a ball bowled by Ewan Stewart.
In reply, Greenock owed much of their success to a fine unbeaten innings of 80 runs by Connor Nowlan, supported by 28 from Angus Tolhurst and a very important 30 not out from Chirag Pandher.
Greenock will travel to meet Irvine at their Marress ground with a deserved feeling of optimism following the team’s fine five wicket win over second top Kelburne last Saturday.
The match at Irvine presents the opportunity to get a backto-back win but will require the team to play well and show a determination to score the runs and take the wickets which will merit the 25 points for victory.
However, it has been very much a start-stop season for the Greenock team. With seven wins from 13 completed matches, the Glenpark side has had difficulty following up one win with another win the next week.
Perhaps this will be the weekend for it to happen. With the yet to be corroborated news that Irvine’s professional, Sachin Jayawardena, may have completed his time in Ayrshire and returned home to Sri Lanka for the start of his own club’s cricket season, Greenock could find they have a significant advantage.
Jayawardena has been a key player during the Western Premiership Two season for the Marress team: he is the division’s top wicket-taker with 40 wickets, with his best match statistic being seven wickets for just eight runs against Hillhead at the beginning of June.
The Sri Lankan professional has also been the team’s top run scorer. However, his batting ability has been less prolific than his bowling and he is placed at 14th highest in the league runscoring stats. His best innings in the league (65) was scored against Greenock.
His absence from the Irvine team on Saturday would certainly be a blow for the Ayrshire side and an advantage to Greenock.
And the coming weekend round of matches could provide a tail-end of the season boost for Greenock as they could go to third in the league if a win can be gained against Irvine and the current third placed team Renfrew lose at home to Glasgow Accies.
But first, Greenock must perform well against Irvine.
Team captain Greg McDougall is once again absent due to his back injury and will not take part again this season. The captaincy has been passed to the team’s allrounder Connor Nowlan who will lead from the front both in bowling and batting.
The young Australian has had a fine season along with his Aussie team-mate Angus Tolhurst. Both have done well for the team scoring runs and taking wickets and they each feature towards the very top of the Western Premiership Two league Stats.
Inclement weather has played a role in a number of Greenock’s matches during the season and could do once again for Saturday’s match at Irvine.
The wet and very windy weather experienced during this week shows little sign of change for the weekend and so preparation of the ground at Marress will be a problem.
A very significant change in overhead conditions may be needed to allow ground conditions to become dry enough for the match to take place.
Greenock’s 1st XI team for the match against Irvine at their Marress ground on Saturday has yet to be announced, but is likely to come from the following pool of players: C.J. Nowlan (capt), M. Ahmadzai, H.R. Briggs, P.J. Bryceland, F. Dinarkhel, I. Khan, U. Mansoor, C.S. Pandher, S.S. Pandher, S.S. Prabhu, A.S. Sanghera, S.S. Sanghera, E.A. Stewart, A.S. Tolhurst.
The match on Saturday at the Marress ground in Irvine will start at 12 noon, weather conditions permitting.
Greenock’s 2nd XI team, Glenpark, have no match this Saturday as their fixture against Stirling County’s 3rd XI has been cancelled due to the Stirling team having been withdrawn from the league midway through the season.
At Glenpark in mid May, the 2nd XI had a resounding win over Stirling when the team scored 245 for 7 and then bowled out the visitors for just 39.
Greenock Cricket Club is sponsored by Cleaning Supplies 4U.