Inverclyde Now Logo CRICKET — Greenock Suffer Heavy Loss To Poloc

25 June, 2018 | Local

Poloc 369 for 2 wickets (25 Points)

Greenock 92 all out (0 points)

GREENOCK suffered a very heavy defeat from Poloc at Shawholm on Saturday as the first half of the Premier Division programme came to an end.

The good form of recent weeks was conspicuously absent as all aspects of Greenock’s game failed to fire on an afternoon when little went right on the park. The one thing which did go well for Greenock occurred with the very first ball of the match when Saurabh Bandekar bowled Poloc opening batsman Ramzan. However, it was a false dawn, as the early wicket was to be the only celebration that Greenock enjoyed throughout the entire afternoon.

From ball two, it was all Poloc. Craig Young came to the middle to join South African professional Jurie Snyman and the two batsmen proceeded to build a partnership which just grew and grew as the innings developed. Snyman, in particular, was the batsman who took charge as Poloc reached various ‘milestones’ but Young was a very able support along the road, while at the same time the Greenock bowling attack could not get into a high enough gear to get wickets.

It was just ’one of those days’ for Greenock. Before leaving Glenpark to travel to Glasgow, up and coming young player Sean Fischer Keogh was forced to call off because of illness and so the Glenparkers’ bowling attack lost one of its key elements. Once at Shawholm, Greenock captain Neil Flack failed to win the toss and Poloc opted to bat on a fine, flat batting track and put Greenock into the field on an afternoon when batting would probably also have been their preference.

And as Snyman and Young were getting the Poloc innings moving forward, Greenock suffered a further couple of setbacks. Firstly, wicketkeeper Chris Hempsey dislocated a finger and had to be replaced behind the stumps by Neil Flack. Then Flack himself suffered a finger injury just as the mid-innings drinks break approached and so Shailesh Prabhu took over as Greenock’s third wicketkeeper for the afternoon. With the Greenock team in some disarray, Snyman and Young took full advantage and piled on the runs.

The first 50 runs came up in the 14th over and by the 22nd over the first 100 runs had been reached. Two hundred runs were on the board in the 37th over, by which time Snyman had reached his own century, and thereafter the South African really let loose. Boundaries and sixes became commonplace as the Poloc score accelerated in the last quarter of their innings. Young, who had been the supporting act to Snyman’s lead role, reached his own century just before Snyman achieved the remarkable milestone of his double century.

The South African’s huge innings finally ended when he was caught by Greg McDougall off the bowling of Neil Flack for 209 in the final over. He hit 12 sixes and 14 fours. Young, who on any other day would have been the star player, reached his own century in the final few overs and finished unbeaten on 128. The Snyman-Young partnership was worth a massive 358 runs and, when the innings closed, the final total was 369 for the loss of just two wickets.

Following the tea interval, Greenock set about the mammoth task of trying to overtake the Poloc total. But it was Poloc who quickly gained the upper hand with both Neil Flack and Laurens Smit removed by the seventh over with just 30 runs on the scoreboard. A 50-partnership between Shailesh Prabhu and Saurabh Bandekar took Greenock into the 80s by the 16th over and the innings was moving along well.

But then four wickets in just three overs, without any addition to the score, left Greenock once again shell-shocked and reeling at 81 for 6. Both Prabhu (35) and Bandekar (22) were removed during the fall of these four wickets and any hope of Greenock getting anywhere close to the Poloc score all but evaporated. The Glasgow side moved in for the kill and only a further 11 runs were added before the Greenock innings came to an end in the 24th over. South African amateur Coenraad Nel was the top Poloc wicket-taker with four wickets for just six runs from 4.4 overs.

The Glenparkers will view Saturday as ‘a bad day at the office’ and move on to the second half of the league season knowing the task which is in front of them if Premier Division survival is to be achieved.

Glenpark XI Lose Out In High-Scoring Match

Greenock 2ndXI (Glenpark) also lost on Saturday, but put in an excellent effort against third-placed East Renfrewshire. Batting first, the Glenpark XI scored 232 for the loss of 9 wickets with Jamie Nowell, 66, Chirag Pandher, 64, and Cammy Calder, not out 35, the top scorers.

In reply, East Renfrewshire successfully chased down the target total with just four overs of their innings remaining and with Ali Qazi not out 112, the match-winner for the visitors.

New 100-Ball Cricket Format Introduced At Glenpark

On Sunday afternoon, Greenock introduced the new ECB (England and Wales Cricket Board) 100-Ball cricket game in what is thought to be the first time in Scotland that the format has been trialled. Indian professional Saurabh Bandekar’s ‘Crash’s Bandicoots’ played South African amateur Laurens Smit’s ‘Smitty’s Smeagols’.

The 100-Ball innings for each team is designed to be completed in just one hour with bonuses and penalties associated with the time-frame, along with a number of other rules which ensure quick-fire action.

Glenpark provided the perfect platform for the new format and, with the ground in magnificent condition, supplemented by glorious warm and sunny weather and a large turnout of spectators, the event was a great success.

Greenock Cricket Club is sponsored by Cleaning Supplies 4U

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