The visitors to Glenpark on Saturday won the toss and put Greenock in to bat, and the hosts were soon in trouble, with opening bat Mo Ahmadzai dismissed with the first ball he faced, bowled by medium pacer Tom Willmott.
Just two overs later and team captain Aryan Sanghera was also returned to the clubhouse, having edged a delivery from Willmott into the gloves of wicketkeeper Bryan Clarke.
It was exactly the start Greenock wanted to avoid against the leaders, and though opener Usman Mansoor and Aussie Adam McGuirk gradually played Greenock back into the match with a third wicket partnership which looked to settle the innings, with the score on 45 McGuirk was beaten by former Scottish international left arm spinner Ross Lyons and bowled for 21 runs.
McGuirk’s dismissal, quickly followed by the loss of Greenock’s second Aussie amateur, Toby Matthews, for just two runs led to a collapse of the remaining batting line-up.
Having been on 45 for the loss of just two wickets prior to McGuirk’s removal, Greenock lost their remaining eight wickets for just 16 runs and were bowled out for 59 in just 26.5 overs.
Uddingston’s spin duo of Lyons, with five wickets for the loss of seven runs in the space of eight overs, and Kieran Walsh, who took three for 15 from 8.5, were the principal architects of Greenock’s batting demise.
In reply, Uddingston wasted no time in finishing off the match; openers Simon Umeed (25 not out) and Ben Willmott (27 not out) took just 12.3 overs to score the runs needed to win the match and secure the full 25 points to keep the Lanarkshire side top of the Western Premiership Two.
The following day, any hopes of Greenock ending the weekend on a positive note were extinguished in Brechin when they were well beaten by Aberdeenshire Grades side Crescent-Dunecht.
Greenock won the toss and put the north-east side in to bat; the hosts duly made a sound start to their innings through opening batters Abrer Ahmed and Jesse Adams who scored at a rate of six runs an over for the first seven overs to give the home side the platform they wanted.
The cup holders got their first breakthrough in the eighth over when Toby Matthews picked up the wicket of Ahmed for 26; a further four wickets were captured by the Greenock bowling attack which contained Crescent-Dunecht to121 for 5 after 31 overs.
But a batting onslaught in the final nine overs elevated the Aberdeenshire side to more than 200 runs by the time the 40 overs innings was completed, and which left the Glenpark side with a challenging target of 208 to chase.
For Greenock, Matthews, with two for 30 from eight overs, Mubi Ahmadzai with two for 36 from eight overs, and Sanghera with two for 29 from three overs were the main wicket-takers.
Greenock’s reply started slowly, with Mansoor and Matthews managing to score at just around two runs per over for the first eight overs, as the Aberdeenshire side’s tidy bowling and smart fielding prevented any boundaries.
At 44 for the loss of two wickets after 17.5 overs, Greenock were gradually getting into the game, although it was already clear that an increase in run rate was going to be required.
However, the loss of Matthews for 24, followed swiftly by the wickets of Adam McGuirk, caught on the boundary just three balls later, and Nikhil Kadyan, who was stumped to leave the score on 45 for 5, completely altered the outlook for the Glenpark team.
The innings never recovered as Greenock stumbled along to 87 before the innings came to an end in the 27th over leaving Crescent-Dunecht worthy winners.
Greenock Cricket Club is sponsored by The Ethos Group.
