East Kilbride travelled to Titwood on Saturday to face Clydesdale in the Scottish cup knowing its was a must win game to keep their Scottish cup campaign alive. Skipper Harmanjit Singh lost the toss and was invited to field by the home captain. Clydesdale got off to flying start due to a combination of wayward bowling, unlucky edges and a few pieces of good running. A sharp catch from Gary Kleinveldt off the bowling of Aftab Talpur ended the charmed life of the Clydesdale opener. Gary then came into the bowling attack to remove the other opener LBW who played across the line. The game was well poised with the opposition pro now at the crease. He wouldn’t stay much longer as Josh Johnston managed to find the edge with Peter Bocock taking a sharp catch behind the stumps. This seemed to bring the game back in EK’s favour after such a fast start from the home side EK initially would have been happy to restrict them to 250. Shahid Mahmood and Josh then bowled a great spell in tandem between them bowling 23 overs for only 58 runs and really turned the screw. Wickets then fells at regular intervals with Josh finishing up with 3 well deserved wickets, Gary two then Stewart and Aftab with one each. Clydesdale were restricted to 206 leaving EK 207 to win with rain looking imminent.
Captain Harminjit Singh said in the dressing room that one of the top four would be needed to get a big score in order to chase the total successfully. Gary and Gavin opened for EK and got off to an even better start than Clydesdale. Gary dispatched the Clydesdale bowling attack to all parts of the ground scoring 43 from 32 balls before falling playing one too many big shots. Gavin had been restricted to being a spectator at the other end but he quickly followed Gary back after being unable to put away a full toss and putting it straight up in the air. This brought Stewart Kampman and Peter Bocock to the crease, Stewart played the anchor role with Peter looking fluent and putting away the bad ball easily. The two of them together put on a hundred partnership which took the game away from Clydesdale which only was ended when Peter mid out the fielder at midwicket to bring his innings to an end. Stewart continued to play a more conservative innings with Captain Singh who looked in good form until his was adjudged LBW bringing Aftab Talpur to the crease to partner Stewart. They saw the game home in the 46th over to complete a 6 wicket win which after learning West Lothian had beaten SMRH blows group A wide open meaning next weekends game vs SMRH is a must win game for both sides.