Stenhousemuir’s aspirations of winning the championship evaporated last weekend with their loss to GHK, however, a win today against their visitors, Uddingston, would keep them in the mix for a runners-up place. But Uddingston are a dangerous opposition whose recent performances have demonstrated how capable a team they can be, a trait that was missing in the first half of the season. A win for them could see a leapfrog jump over Kelburne into 8th place and out of the relegation zone.
Stenhousemuir decided to bat first, and although there was an early wicket with Peter Hamilton (3) being caught off Tom Willmott in the 2nd over, Bahadar Esakhiel and Yaseen Valli went through the gears against the Uddingston bowling. It would be another 41 overs and 216 runs later before the 2nd Stenhousemuir wicket fell when Yaseen Valli (95) miscued a long-hop from Rohail Jahan-Zeb and was caught at mid-wicket. Both Valli and Esakhiel were on 95 when that 2nd wicket fell and you have to feel for Valli on missing out on another league ton as temptation to do so came from a rare moment of show-boating and proved too great for him.
Stenhousemuir were now 221-2 after 43 overs, and with the innings reduced to 48 because of rain delays, Uddingston were now going to have to be frugal with their bowling at the death as, with wickets in hand, the Stenny batting would simply throw the bat at everything.
Zander Smith (14) was caught off Tom Willmott in the 47th over taking the Stenny total to 249-3 followed by Esakhiel (120) caught by Jahan-Zeb off Ross Lyons midway through the 48th over with Stenhousemuir finishing up 265-4.
The bowling figures were Tom Willmott 2-60, Lyons 1-42 and Jahan-Zeb 1-25.
Initially, Uddingston’s chase of a largish total looked to be well underway with Abdul Sabri belting Nick Lister’s opening over for 14 and although Keerat Singh (4) was dismissed by Ollie Townsend in the 5th over, Sabri proceeded to belt Lister for a further 9 runs in his 3rd over. With a required run-rate of 5.3 in pursuit of a DLS amended total of 274, there appeared to be a genuine intent by Uddingston to take the game to Stenhousemuir and test the home side’s bowling options in defence of that total.
Even with Sabri (25) bowled by Townsend at the beginning of the 7th over, Uddingston continued with the chase. At the beginning of the 12th over, Uddy were 55-2 and going for it, and although Harry Singh (15) was caught off Lister’s bowling at the end of the over, there was no visible sign of abatement of the run chase.
A 33 run partnership between Amaan Ramzan and Fergus Clarke came to an end in the 21st over when Ramzan (27) was out to Callum Grant and Uddingston now 88-4, but when Fergus Clarke (21) was caught behind off Grant, the total was now 107-5 and any realistic hopes of chasing down the Stenny total were quickly vanishing into the air like the smoke from one of my cigarettes.
The final 5 wickets fell for 35 runs over the course of the following 20 overs and Uddingston were 142 all out in the 43rd over and a DLS loss by 131 runs.
Ollie Townsend finished up taking 4-33 with Callum Grant taking 4-17.
A welcome win for Stenhousemuir but for Uddingston, a loss they could seriously do without with only three weeks of the league season left to play.
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Kelburne faced 2nd placed Ayr with two distinct difficulties – the first being that it was Ayr they were playing, the second one being that Kelburne had to win today to improve their percentage to assist their attempt to avoid relegation. The weather is changeable and there is no guarantee of further games being played. For Ayr, a similar predicament of needing to win to maintain a wistful championship challenge while harbouring the hope of Clydesdale now failing in at least three of their four remaining fixtures.
Ayr opted to bat first in an early innings that was interspersed with delays due to passing showers. Marcel Marconi (6) was caught by Mohammad off Rahim Roghani in the 3rd over with surprise opening bowler, Gavin Arbuckle, inducing Ollie Jones (2) to play a false shot and was caught. Michael English (28) was caught by Evan Fouche off Ross MacLean and Ayr were 50-3 off 13 overs. And for a second week in a row, the Ayr team batted around Neil Flack in small partnerships that enabled them to post a realistically defendable total. Jake Woodhouse (33) was caught off Lucas Farndale in the 30th over to make it 112-4 followed by Gavin Murray (08) being dismissed by Farndale in the 34th over. Brayden Riggs (16) was caught and bowled by Gurveer Singh in the 41st over making it 157-6 with 9 overs to go and a definite thrash with the bat at play. Neil Flack (45) was caught off Singh in the 45th over and 166-7. The last three wickets fell over the course of the final 5 overs but the tail picked up 27 vital runs for the Ayr total with Michael Maxwell (6), Hamza Tahir (15) andLyle Jefferson (12) with Ayr 193 all out in the 50th over.
The pick of Kelburne’s bowling was Ross MacLean 2-28, Lucas Farndale 2-37 and Gurveer Singh 3-37.
The rain interruptions meant Kelburne had to score 144 off 29 overs as per the Duckworth-Lewis Stern permutations but their innings just faltered from the start. There had been a couple of early wickets but they appeared to be mounting a serious reply but the introduction of Hamza Tahir into the Ayr attack knocked the stuffing out of the Kelburne batting. He took two wickets in 3 balls in his 2nd over when he dismissed Evan Fouche (12) and Ryan Murray (13). Lucas Farndale (5) was out to Ollie Jones in the 17th over and Hamza Tahir struck again in the 18th over trapping Zain Mohammad (0) LBW and then bowled Kyle Northend (9) first ball of the 20th over. Kelburne had fallen 43-2 in 13 overs to 58-7 after 20 overs and with their principal batting gone, the chance of attaining a much-needed victory was lost. Although Alexander Gilmour (14) and Ross MacLean (15) did their best, the innings concluded in the 28th over when Gavin Arbuckle (6) was last man out when he was bowled by Marcel Marconi. Kelburne were 94 all out in the 28th over, 49 runs shy of the DLS target.
The main Ayr bowling was Hamza Tahir 4-19 and Marcel Marconi 2-11.
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The game of the day in the Premiership with a respectful poignancy as both clubs played for the Spirit of Cricket cup in memory of Sandy Strang and Con de Lange, two cricketing legends who played for both.
A home win today for Clydesdale would all but confirm a back to back championship victory with three games to go but their opposition, Ferguslie, their historical adversaries, would not be entertaining any of Clydesdale’s attempts to win the match. Always a keenly contested contest and one that is always a difficult result to predict.
Clydesdale won the toss and invited Ferguslie to bat first. In an inning interspersed with rain delays, Taimoor Ahmad (63) was the batting of note while partners came and went as Ferguslie attempted to post a total. Although there were partnerships with Muhammed Mayet (11), Saif Sajjad (5), Gregor-Preston-Jones (11) and Ettiene Jewell (08) that yielded the bulk of the Ferguslie total, like the weather, it was a stop-start affair – you get going, looking set, off for rain and have to start all over again – a difficult task to keep going over an innings. The Ferguslie innings came to an end in the 44th over with a final total of 145 all out.
The Clydesdale bowling that did the damage was Isaac Rahman 4-20, Rafay Khan 2-33 and Sheryar Awan 2-12.
The Clydesdale response was patient and measured – an easy thing to do if you know that the target to reach can be achieved by simply rotating the strike and keeping the scoreboard ticking over. Clydesdale passed the Ferguslie total in the 29th over for the loss of 2 wickets – Ali Khan (24) and Sheryar Awan (41) were the 2 wickets to fall with Craig Young (39 not out) and Richie Berrington (25 not out) the only other Clydesdale batters to feature.
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The weather of the past few days would have made the playing conditions at Old Annieland interesting and certainly a pitch not to face the bowling blitzkrieg first up – win the toss, stuff the opposition in, bowl them out and then be patient chasing as you have become aware of how the wicket is playing – that thought process applied to both teams. A definite do-or-die dilemma for Dumfries as they needed a win today to improve their placing position percentage, and the greatest chance of that was having GHK bat first.
Obviously GHK hadn’t read their own game-plan for today or looked at the Dumfries side that had rocked up at Old Annielsand – a Dumfries side packed with bowling options and impressive capabilities with the bat – GHK opted to bat first and were quickly finding themselves 37-4 after 12 overs. Ben Plowman had accounted for Zishan Zaman (1) and Fazal Jawad (1) in the opening 3 overs followed by first change bowler Adam Malik dismissing Nasratullah Safi (5) and Ali Majeed (21) in the space of 4 balls in the 12th over. Opening bowler Alan Davidson reduced GHK to 51-5 in his final over when he caught and bowled Muhammad Majeed and finished his 10 over spell with 1-29. Mo Naweed (14) was the 7th wicket to fall when he was caught off Sultan Kamran’s bowling when the score was 74.
GHK then slumped to 99-8 off 36 overs when Ali Qasi (5) was out to Callum Reynolds-Lewis then 103-8 off 38 overs when Ahsan Rafiq (2) was caught off Reynold-Lewis. The final pair got GHK to 130 all out in 43 overs with Azeem Akbar (11 not out) and Issy Hussain (20) the last wicket to fall when he was caught of Plowman’s bowling.
Dumfries had done well to bowl GHK out for 130 with Ben Plowman taking 3-19, Adam Malik 2-21 and Callum Reynolds-Lewis 2-20 but they had also let themselves down by bowling 27 wides, those 27 wides being the top scorer for GHK – would those 27 wides come back to haunt them?
They did. The Dumfries innings was a just a tortuous procession of wickets and when Scott Beveridge (2) was dismissed, the total was 66-8 after 32 overs. Tommy McGrath (10) and Alan Davidson (14) managed to get them to the 38th over but both fell to the bowling of Ali Majeed in that over and Dumfries were 92 all out.
GHK’s bowling figures were Zain Ullah 2-20, Muhammad Majeed 3-14 and Ali Majeed 3-8.
Yet another win for GHK consolidating their 5th position but it was a fortuitous one. For Dumfries, another loss anchoring them to the foot of the table and now running out time and fixtures to change that position. Those 27 wides bowled came at a cost with them losing by 38 runs. The extra overs that needed to be bowled and the subsequent extra runs scored off them ultimately counted against them today in a low-scoring encounter that, realistically, they should have won.
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There were going to be mid-table bragging rights for the victor today with Jekyll and Hyde playing the Kingmakers. Prestwick needed their sane cricketing personality to come out to play against a Drumpellier side who have discovered their batting prowess in recent weeks. A win would confirm the victor’s mid-table position for the rest of the season provided they don’t make a roger of it in the final 3 weeks.
Although the match at Titwood would be always classed as game of the day, this was definitely the match of the day. Even though it was a rain interrupted contest, this certainly was a contest between two very evenly matched sides both missing regular players.
Prestwick batted first and got off to a horror with Indy Singh (0) and Fraser MacDonald (0) both bowled by Chathuranga Kumara in the first over and the nightmare start of 0-2. Just like reading the Robert Louis Stevenson novella and considering the conflict between good and bad, I was wondering which of the duality personalities of the Prestwick batting, the good or the bad, was going to be on show. When Tiann Kuhn (9) was out to Adnan Bukhari and Prestwick 33-3 after 8 overs, I honestly thought the bad character was making an appearance. However, Sachin Chaudhary thought otherwise, and along with Euan McBeth (15), batted in a sane manner to calm the potential for madness. McBeth was bowled by Shehroz Mehmood in the 16th over but that small stand of 34 had steadied the Prestwick nerves somewhat.
Chaudhary was joined at the wicket by Declan Botes and they shared a stand of 73 taking the Prestwick score to 140-5 until Botes (29) was out in the 32nd over. Ross Kennedy (08) helped Chaudhary keep the scoreboard going and after he was bowled by Mohsin Khan in the 40th over, Prestwick were now a healthier looking 166-5. Even though Gurupreet Singh (6) was bowled by Khan in the 42nd over, Callan Turner’s sensible knock of 24 assisted the Prestwick cause further until he was run out in the 49th over and Prestwick were 223-8. Fletcher Rao (1) was bowled in the 50th over but the final Prestwick total was 229-9 with Sachin Chaudhary undefeated with a very calm and measured 116 not out. A fantastic recovery from 0-2 by Prestwick and produced by batting in partnerships creating stands to build platforms to post a sizeable score. And hats off to Drumpellier for the sporting applause of Sachin’s ton.
Drumpellier’s bowling figures of note were Chathuranga Kumara 3-38 and Mohsin Khan also taking 3-38. Two commendable bowling performances given the start/stop aspect of the innings due to rain delays and that the ball would have been like a bar of carbolic soap to bowl with.
Drumpellier’s reply had an early loss when Muhammad Nadeem (5) by Ronan Alexander in the 6th over, but another 10 overs were bowled before the next wicket fell. Gordon Shaw (35) was caught by MacDonald off Alexander in the 16th and Drumps were 54-2. Hassan Azhar (9) came and went after being dismissed by Fletcher Rao in the 23rd over with the Langloan side 69-3. In among some tight Prestwick bowling, a stand of 70 followed with Chathuranga Kumara and Supeshala Jayathilake doing what they are good at – rotating the strike with ones and twos and occasional boundaries. The partnership came to an end in the 40th over when Jayathilake (32) was caught off the bowling of Indy Singh.
At 139-4, the equation for Drumpellier was a simple one – 91 required off 10 overs with 6 wickets in hand. A big ask perhaps, but in recent weeks, the Drumpellier batting had certainly shown what it is capable of delivering.
That ask was briefly stifled the following over when Adnan Bukhari (3) was LBW to Chaudhary, however, 35 runs came off the following four overs keeping Drumpellier up with the required run-rate. But it went awry in the 46th over when Chris Keltie (08) was bowled by the returning Tiann Kuhn leaving Drumpellier 178-6. The final possibilities of reaching the required target expired in the 47th and 48th overs, when in the space of 8 balls, Shehroz Mehmood (1) was stumped off Rao with Chathuranga Kumara (75) caught off Rao then Rayyann Khan (0) bowled by Kuhn. The final Drumpellier wicket fell when Nathan Allison (0) was bowled by Rao in the 49th over leaving them 40 runs short of the target and 189 all out.
A disappointing end to what had been a spirited chase by Drumpellier but credit has to be given to the Prestwick bowling who stuck to their task of defence with Fletcher Rao 4-30, Tiann Kuhn 2-31 and Ronan Alexander 2-28.
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Given the overnight weather and then the showery conditions throughout the day, it was pleasurable to see all five Premiership games completed without incident and also replete with umpires, a circumstance that couldn’t be repeated around the country due to an apparent shortage of umpires to be appointed to games, especially when we have now entered the business end of the season in all the various leagues and competitions.
Instead of bemoaning the fact that there is a shortage, surely questions should really be asked of those in charge, whoever they are, as to why the likes of myself, a qualified umpire with numerous domestic and representative match appointments under my belt since I stopped playing due to injury, is either watching games at home via a computer screen or as a spectator at a ground in the west on a Saturday afternoon?
To be honest, I’ve now found other things to do on a summer Saturday, and admittedly, have got used to being that type of spectator and doing this weekly review of the games that I have watched, but, and it does irk me, my benching as an umpire was never my choice and one that was made for me.
It just seems a waste to have had an umpire available and not utilised when an act of simple engagement with me could have gone some way to remedy the current umpire shortage. That ship has sailed though, a long ship, in search of other adventures, and that is cricket’s loss.
Perhaps it just my opinion, but is a pity that those that appear to be in charge do not want to readily engage with the general domestic cricketing community, whether it be clubs, members, players, spectators and officials past and present.
