By Peter Hempsey

GREENOCK are once again on their travels tomorrow to meet Renfrewshire rivals Ferguslie at their Meikleriggs ground.

As well as being a Renfrewshire derby match, Saturday’s fixture provides another opportunity for Greenock to gain valuable points in their drive to retain a position in the top cricket league for another season.

The Glenpark side must win at least three out of their remaining seven Western Premiership One matches to give themselves a chance of staying in the division.

It is a significant challenge but one the players feel they can achieve by training hard and focusing on their individual skills within the team.

Ferguslie will provide a stern test. Premiership winners and also Scottish Champions of Champions last season in 2022, the Paisley side are a formidable outfit.

But this season, the Meikleriggs team have lost three of their ten Premiership matches and Greenock will seek to add another dent in their 2023 campaign on Saturday.

When the teams met at Glenpark in May, Ferguslie batted first and scored 238 all out and won by the handsome margin of 112 runs.

A 95 run second wicket partnership between opening bat Gregor Preston-Jones (61) and young Afghani player Bahadar Ezakhiel (37) laid a sound platform from which the remaining Ferguslie batsmen were able to go on and achieve a commanding total.

But it was not all plain sailing for the Paisley team as Greenock captured five wickets for just 36 runs once Ezakhiel was second wicket to fall on 97.

Ezakhiel has continued to be a consistently good performer with the bat and is currently in the top ten run scorers in the Premiership along with South African professional Mo Mayat and team-mate Uzair Ahmad.

And when Gregor Preston-Jones and David Stafford, both with over 200 runs this season, are added to the list, Ferguslie have a group of players who know how to score runs.

The Meikleriggs team also has a strong bowling attack. Daoud and Haroon Tahir each have 19 league wickets to their credit, Qasim Khan 16 and pro Mo Mayat 11.

So Greenock face a stiff challenge but the players have been encouraged by some good performances in recent weeks. 

The batting performances of professional Rahul Dalal have been a boost to the side. He has scored three Premiership centuries so far this season and his 90 runs against league leaders Ayr was almost his fourth. Dalal is the second highest run scorer in the league with 628 runs and an average of 89.7.

And last Saturday saw a return to form of opening batsman Tom Polkinghorne who scored 40 runs in a fine third wicket partnership of 112 runs with Dalal. He has scored over 250 runs in the Premiership and is a key player for Greenock.

If Polkinghorne can get himself in on Saturday and stay out in the middle for an extended period, and Dalal can do the same, then Greenock will be well in the game.

Polkinghorne will once again have a change of opening partner for the Ferguslie match as work commitments mean Shailesh Prabhu drops out However, Harry Briggs is available and returns to the team and, having previously filled the role, may be asked to replace Prabhu at the top of the batting order on Saturday.

Team captain Greg McDougall does have other options for Polkinghorne’s opening partner and could turn to Lukas Fischer-Keogh or Nikhil Kadyan, both of whom also have experience at the top of the order.

Whichever partnership is chosen, a good start to the innings would be a bonus for Greenock as it has been a problem area for the team this season.

McDougall will also have to carefully consider how to use his bowlers. He has a number of options but only one pace bowler, Gregor Chambers at his disposal. Getting the right combination at the start of the Ferguslie innings could be important toward making some early breakthroughs.

Greenock’s 1stXI team for the match against Ferguslie at Meikleriggs will be: GJ McDougall, HR Briggs, GM Chambers, RR Dalal, LC Fischer-Keogh, T Forrest, N Kadyan, T Polkinghorne, CS Pandher, A Sanghera, S Sanghera. 12th Man…..M Ahmadzai

Scorer: R McGregor The match on Saturday at Meikleriggs will start at 12noon

Greenock’s 2ndXI face second top Glasgow Accies 2ndXI (Anniesland) at Glenpark The team for the match will be from : E Ahmad capt., A Afzal, S Chaudhary, A Farooq, J Hutchinson, I Khan, N Nagaraju, J Nowell, E Norris, H Safi. E Stewart, U Varma, Y Yadav, DC Sharma.

The match v Anniesland at Glenpark will start at 12noon.

Greenock Cricket Club is sponsored by Cleaning Supplies 4U