Joy for Greenock Cricket Club as cup final win secures first major trophy in 16 years

GREENOCK Cricket Club won their first major trophy in 16 years with a thrilling triumph over Edinburgh CC in the final of the Cricket Scotland Challenge Cup.

In warm sunshine at Stenhousemuir CC’s ground, The Tryst in Larbert, Greenock made the most of possibly the best conditions of this summer to secure victory with just eight balls remaining.

It was their first national trophy success since the Murgitroyd 20/20 Trophy was win against Corstorphine in 2009, and their first silverware in the one-day format of the game since the SNCL Premier League and the Scottish Cup were won in 2007.

Greenock captain Aryan Sanghera won the toss and invited Edinburgh to bat – and with just the third ball of the match, it looked like the right decision, as opener Kashif Hussain was comfortably caught at backward point by Mubi Ahmadzai off the pace bowling of Fahim Dinarkheil.

Mateen Butt and Sohail Butt quickly established a very productive second-wicket century partnership which propelled Edinburgh to 103 early in the 18th over – but with just the second ball of new bowler Mubi Ahmadzai’s first over, an attempted quick single led to Sohail Butt being run out for 42 after a very smart piece of fielding by Will Jenkins.

As often happens when a good partnership is broken, a third wicket was captured just two balls later, when Ahmadzai had new batsman Umair Farooq caught by Harry Briggs without any addition to the score.

A fourth wicket fell just seven runs later when Edinburgh’s main run scorer Mateen Butt became the second batter to be run out, in his case for 57.

And from that point in the innings, wickets fell regularly as Edinburgh failed to find another partnership of any size; from 110 for the loss of 4 wickets, the team from the capital city collapsed to 154 all out after just 33.3 overs of the 40 available.

Greenock bowled Edinburgh out for 154 runs. (Image: ALEX CRAIG) Mubi Ahmadzai was the top wicket-taker for Greenock with four wickets for 18 runs from eight overs.

Greenock’s reply, after the interval between innings, was almost a mirror image of the start of the Edinburgh innings earlier in the day: with only the fourth ball of the Greenock innings, captain Aryan Sanghera had his stumps knocked back as he was beaten by the pace of Hazrat Bilal.

There was to be no hundred partnership for the second wicket, however, as Greenock’s star batsman of the season, Cal Henry, was adjudged lbw to Bilal with the last ball of the third over and with the score on just 16.

Henry had looked in good form and had scored 12 runs from 11 balls faced, and his dismissal threatened to be a huge blow to Greenock.

Harry Briggs and Will Jenkins steadied the Greenock innings after the dismissal of Cal Henry for jsut 12 runs. (Image: ALEX CRAIG) Harry Briggs and Will Jenkins steadied the innings with a battling 45-run partnership as Edinburgh sought a third wicket; it did eventually come in the 18th over when Briggs was caught by Mateem Butt off the bowling of Farooq for 23 runs.

Edinburgh looked to be taking control of the match as the wickets of Cammy Calder, Sam Sanghera and Sehmat Pandher were all captured in just six overs, with Greenock stumbling to 97 for 6.

At that point, Greenock needed another 58 runs to win, with just 12 overs remaining and seemingly unable to score more than two or three runs an over against some fine Edinburgh bowling.

And when Will Jenkins was caught off the bowling of Daud Ahmed for a very important 35 runs it looked as though Edinburgh might have gained the upper hand; just under nine overs remained and with Greenock’s lower order now exposed, 36 runs were still needed and seemed a distance away.

Greenock’s players celebrate a memorable win. (Image: Contributed) But Greenock’s number eight batsman Chirag Pandher was the man for the moment. Supported by number nine Mubi Ahmadzai, Pandher, who had scored two boundaries and a six just before Jenkins was dismissed, changed his tactics and skilfully beat the Edinburgh field with a series of ones and twos which took Greenock to the brink of victory towards the end of the 39th over.

With the scores tied and eight balls remaining, Ahmadzai perfectly clipped pace bowler Ahmed high and long over the square leg boundary for a six – only later to discover that the umpire had given a no ball for a front foot infringement by Ahmed which, in fact, had ended the game.

(Image: Contributed)

For Greenock’s sizeable support, though, the sight of Ahmadzai’s shot flying well over the boundary sparked scenes of jubilation.

* A significantly depleted Greenock side lost by four wickets to second-top Renfrew at Glenpark on Saturday.

Batting first, Greenock had second XI regular Usman Mansoor to thank as he held together the home innings for 41 overs, scoring 48 runs.

His innings was one of great concentration, and considerable batting skill, and was the mainstay of the team’s eventual total of 169 for 9, with Cal Henry (23), Jonathan Hempsey (19) and Greg McDougall (15) the only other batters to reach double figures.

Renfrew were made to work hard in reply; only visiting captain Hussanain Haider made it to 30 runs, while a number of others scored double figures as Renfrew reached and passed Greenock’s total for the loss of six wickets.

Another second XI regular, Kurakulasuriya Leema, returned Greenock’s best bowling figures with two wickets for 28 runs off four overs, while Sehmat Pandher collected two for 37 from his 10 overs.

* Meanwhile, a makeshift Greenock second XI overcame Vale of Leven on Saturday – but only just.

Glenpark bowled Vale out for 81 runs after 32 overs, with Emily Norris bagging four wickets for 16 runs off 10 overs.

The visitors lost eight wickets in the course of their reply before eventually struggling to the 82 runs they needed to keep their league title hopes alive.

Himal Chhetri with 24 runs and Sahil Safi with 17 not out were the top scorers for the Glenpark XI.

Greenock Cricket Club is sponsored by Cleaning Supplies 4U.

Joy for Greenock Cricket Club as cup final win secures first major trophy in 16 years

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