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Western Premier League: Week Four

Cricket Scotland @CricketScotland
May 19, 2019 5 years

PRESTWICK, the 2017 champions, continued their impressive start to the campaign with a convincing victory over struggling Greenock at Glenpark on another rain-affected Saturday.

In one of just two matches to survive across both top flights, the visitors dismissed Greenock for 191 in 40 overs and then comfortably chased a revised target of 190.

The result was in little doubt when the Ayrshire side’s openers produced a composed stand of 111, Fazal Jawad leading the way with a hard-hitting 75.

However, Mitchell Rao played an equally important hand with a fine 61 after being promoted up the order to replace the absent Shahzad Rafiq.

Saurabh Bandekar, Greenock’s Indian professional, was the home side’s top performer in both innings, claiming 3-28 having earlier stroked 84 but Sachin Chaudhary’s 4-37 and 2-32 from Craig Morrison put Prestwick in charge.

Visiting skipper Tom Fleet declared: “They got a few more runs than we hoped but a very disciplined second innings from us made the difference and was the reason we got over the line.

“Although Sachin took four wickets, Craig Morrison bowled the best spell for us with 2-32 but he deserved better figures than that.

“It was a fantastic team performance but there’s still plenty to work on for all of us.”

The only other match to survive saw West of Scotland join Prestwick in preserving their 100% record with a third consecutive victory after edging out Drumpellier by 14 runs at Langloan.

All eyes may have been on West’s high-profile debutant Rory Kleinveldt but, in the event, the South African internationalist was over-shadowed by Lucas Farndale who was the Hamilton Crescent side’s top performer with bat and ball.

In a match reduced to 26 overs, West’s decision to bat first appeared to have back-fired when they slumped to 29-4 with Kleinveldt among those gone, caught for 9 by home skipper Gordon Shaw off Zeeshan Aziz who went on to claim 3-23, a tally matched by Nathan Allison.

However, Farndale’s gritty knock of 28 and 27 from Rob Corner ensured that West scrapped their way to a competitive 139 with three balls of their allocation unused.

Kleinveldt was consistently threatening with the ball but remained wicket-less from his six overs while Farndale completed a fine all-round performance with 3-13 and Gavin Smith, following five wickets in as many balls the previous week, chipped-in with 2-39. 

Drumps were given hope when three of their batsmen reached 20 but none could go on and play a winning innings, Graeme McLaren top-scoring with 25 as the home side came up short on 125-7.

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