GREENOCK got their 2023 season off to a fine start over the weekend by winning both of their pre-season friendly matches at Glenpark.

On Saturday the local side gained a fine six wicket win over Western Premiership Two side East Renfrewshire, and on Sunday defeated West of Scotland, a Western Premiership One team by 36 runs.

The matches also provided the club’s new professional Rahul Dalal with his first taste of cricket in Scotland. On Saturday, in particular, he provided the local supporters with a display of batting which will give considerable encouragement for the league season which begins next weekend.

East Renfrewshire 153 all out

Greenock 157 for four wickets

The Greenock team for the match against East Renfrewshire was comprised mainly of players who will likely play for the club’s 2ndXI but was bolstered with the new pro and also featured 1stXI opening bowler Gregor Chambers and club captain Greg McDougall.

With the sun shining and the Glenpark ground looking in superb shape, East Renfrewshire elected to bat first.

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But it was Greenock’s opening bowlers who got the early upper-hand. Within eight overs, East Renfrewshire had lost their first five wickets and had just 24 runs on the scoreboard.

Gregor Chambers did most of this early damage, taking four of the five wickets which fell.

The visitor’s professional, Nazar Hussain, along with Jahanzeb Farrukh, added 41 runs for the sixth wicket before Farrukh was run out.

Only four more runs were added before Greenock captured a further wicket, leaving East Renfrewshire in the perilous position of 69 for 7.

Gregor Chambers took 4 wickets for 17 runs from his allotted 8 overs.

Greenock’s reply after tea did not start well. With only 19 runs scored, three of the top order had been returned to the clubhouse.

However, a game-changing partnership of 116 runs from home professional Rahul Dalal and Nagendra Nagaraju took Greenock to the brink of victory before Dalal was bowled out.

The pro scored 85 runs from just 67 balls and hit 15 boundaries.

Nagaraju and team captain Greg McDougall took Greenock past the visitors’ total in fine style with ten overs to spare. Nagaraju finished unbeaten on 42.

Greenock 160 for 6

West of Scotland 124 all-out

On Sunday afternoon in much cooler, overcast conditions Greenock batted first against their Western Premiership One opponents.

The top order batsmen in the Greenock line-up provided a steady build up of runs, scoring at just under four runs per over for most of the match and the team ended the 40 over innings with a run-rate of exactly four runs per over.

Tom Polkinghorne (22), Lukas Fischer-Keogh (21) and Rahul Dalal (22) each made a good start to their innings before giving fairly straightforward catching opportunities which cut short their time out in the middle.

But Gregor Chambers, batting at number five for Greenock was the home side’s top scorer. He made exactly 50 runs and scored six boundaries before being bowled by Tom Spensely.

At the end of their innings, Greenock had amassed 160 runs for the loss of just six wickets. West’s spin bowler Antony Hulatt with three wickets for 32 runs was West’s most successful bowler.

In reply, West made a decent start to their innings and had scored 28 runs when their first wicket went down with Jacobsen LBW to Sam Sanghera.

Their second wicket partnership added 24 runs to take the total on to 52 at which point opening batsman Mills was removed for 31. Greg McDougall took a good catch to end his innings off the bowling of Jonathan Hempsey at the long off boundary at the Fox Street end.

From then on West could only manage a number of fairly minor partnerships as their innings failed to move forward in any sort of threatening way towards the Greenock total.

The introduction of Nagendra Nagaraju to Greenock’s bowling attack led to him picking up no fewer than five wickets and seriously damaged the visitors’ prospects.

Nagaraju returned the excellent bowling figures of five wickets for nine runs from 4.1 overs.

Jonathan Hempsey and Rahul Dalal both took two wickets for 28 runs from the eight overs each bowled while Sam Sanghera took two fine catches.

Greenock Cricket Club is sponsored by Cleaning Supplies 4U