Greenock 119 for 10 wickets after 29.5 overs

Stenhousemuir 10 for no wicket after 1. 3 overs

Match abandoned

GREENOCK'S hopes of survival in the Western Premiership One suffered a double blow on Saturday.

Their match against Stenhousemuir at Glenpark was an opportunity to gain a win and 25 valuable points but wet weather plagued the day and after a series of stop-starts it was eventually abandoned.

Meanwhile, third bottom Stirling County, the team which Greenock were looking to overhaul to keep their Premiership place, managed to finish their match at Prestwick and won.

So with just two more rounds of matches remaining in the 2023 Western Premiership One league programme, the Greenock team is set to return to playing in the Western Premiership Two next season.

Greenock Telegraph:

Winning the last two matches against Stirling County and Uddingston will now still not be enough for Greenock as County’s win at Prestwick means that even if the Stirlingshire side lose their last two matches, Greenock will be unable to overtake them.

On Saturday afternoon, Greenock won the toss and elected to bat first. But the match only got under way at 2pm, some two hours after the normal 12 noon starting time, due to a rain delay.

Delays rarely work to the advantage of the batting side and so it was on Saturday as both opening batsmen were back in the clubhouse after just nine balls had been bowled.

A fairly quickfire partnership between Chris Hempsey and Rahul Dalal added 40 runs before Hempsey (12) was caught by Vaughan Davies on the Fox Street boundary from the bowling of Nick Lister.

Greenock Telegraph:

Gregor Chambers and Dalal then had a 34 run partnership before Dalal was LBW to Vaughan Davies for 49 leaving Greenock 83 for 4 in just the 13th over.

Chambers and Nikhil Kadyan added 31 runs from the next 12 overs before Kadyan was bowled by Calum Grant for 12 runs.

With ten overs to play Greenock were 114 for the loss of five wickets and looking to post a total in excess of 150.

Greenock Telegraph:

That did not happen. Instead, Greenock lost their next five wickets for just five runs to set Stenhousemuir a target of 121 to win.

But with just nine bowled in the visitors' innings and after a lengthy delay due to further heavy rain, the match was abandoned with Stenhousemuir on 10 runs without loss.

Greenock Cricket Club is sponsored by Cleaning Supplies 4U