East Kilbride had the privilege to host Greenock in the second round of the league. What made the occasion even more special. It was EK’s first home game of 2017.

Greenock won the toss and elected to bat first. The decision was a no brainer really. As the wicket look like an absolute belter and the outfield in mint condition. Hats off to the dedicated groundsmen of EK who work hard during the week to prepare a picturesque scenery for both players and spectators. The lovely weather that we had the past week continued into the weekend and the day was set for a spectacular game of cricket.

Greenock made a solid start with a 27 run opening stand but lost 2 wickets in 2 consecutive overs to hamper their momentum. All of the Greenock batsmen made starts and had partnerships that looked threatening but not one of them kicked on to make a valuable contribution. When Greenock batsmen N Flack(22), K Scrimegour(33), S Prabu(41) and J Hulbert(36) evaluate and reflect on their performances they would be bitterly disappointed that they did not make more of what was a suburb batting track.

What East Kilbride’s bowlers did well were pick up wickets at the right time. Just as a batsmen or partnership looked ominous a breakthrough would occur. It is always a pleasant sight for the captain if all of his bowlers are on the wickets list. S Kampman(1-22) and J Johnston(1-35) bowled well for EK. The stand out bowlers for East Kilbride were U Saeed(2-14) and M Iqbal(1-13) who controlled the middle overs and dragged the run rate back a touch when Greenock looked set for a big score. K Sajjad(4-30) took 3 quick wickets in the last overs of the innings as he wrapped up the tail. He however has his wicket-keeper Craig Smith to thank for one of his wickets. As a sharp piece of work saw Smith stumped the Greenock batsmen as he strayed out of his crease while EK was appealing for a caught behind dismissal.

With Sajjad cleaning up the tail. Greenock posted a below par 188 all out. This being said Greenock had the runs on the board and EK still had to knock it off. But East Kilbride was heavy favourites heading into the lunch break.

EK’s chase started with the worst possible outcome. As they lost a wicket with the very first delivery of their batting innings. C Smith and number 3 batsmen, S Sajjad, had a steady 32 run first wicket partnership to settle the nerves for EK. Smith lost his wicket for 14 runs and left EK in a slight predicament but M Iqbal and S Sajjad added a valuable 70 runs to sway the victory back in EK’s direction. Sajjad lost his wicket for a well played 35.

EK continued to tick the score board over and move towards their target. They did lose a few wickets along the way but Iqbal’s calmness and precision at the crease saw EK home with 5 wickets to spare. As he also had a valuable 45 run partnership with A Hussein.

Iqbal playing a match winning innings as he ended his delightful knock on 84 runs not out and truly deserves the man of the match award for his contributions with bat and ball.

The main partnership for EK however was the 70 run stand between S Sajjad and Iqbal. It could be seen as the partnership that won the game for EK.

A vastly improved performance from the men of East Kilbride. They however still have a few lingering problems that needs to be addressed if they want to contend for the title. But on the day their was plenty of positives to take out of the game and build on for the future.

Most importantly East Kilbride won their first game of the season and have some points on the log. The monkey is off their back and avoided the start that they had last season.
Next week is an away trip to Kelburne and games between the two sides usually turn out to be a spicy affair. East Kilbride therefore know that they are going to have to be at their best if they are to walk away with a victory!