Deanpark , Renfrews second eleven played Shawholm the second eleven of Poloc through in Poloc Park and Deanpark captain Taral Khasiya elected to field on winning the toss, the Deanpark opening bowlers contained the Shawholm openers without taking any wickets and the introduction of the spinners brought the first wicket for Shiva Matsagar. He was followed by thirteen year old Rafaay Khan who made his bowling debut and picked up two wickets. Deanpark failed to contain the Shawholm middle order clubbing and allowed Shawholm to finish on 208 for 7 , with extras the highest scorer 56, including 48 wides. Early dropped catches and wayward bowling did not help but young Rafaay Khan had an exceptional bowling debut not being fazed by the “ clubbers” with figures of 2 for 43 of ten overs and Sai Majeed ended also with two wickets for 27 of his 10 overs.

Deanpark knew they had to get off a good start and have wickets in hand to have any chance of winning the game, unfortunately it was the opposite with Sai Majeed opening the batting with his son thirteen year old Muhaymen , but Sai was bowled for two on the last ball of the fisrt over followed shortly by his brother Parvase who edged one to first slip a few overs later also for 2. This brought the two thirteen year old youngsters together with Raffay joining Muhaymen at the crease, again this did not last too long and Rafaay was bowled for 0. Muhaymen kept his composure and showed great maturity whilst those around him were losing their wickets and with the only meaningful partnerships coming with Taral Khasiya 13 adding 32 and David Mudie 12 adding 52 to the total , with extras again being the highest scorer on 62 with 50 wides. Deanpark managed a creditable 129 for 7 of their 50 overs finishing by 79 runs from a position where it looked like it could have been a quick finish with the team being all out. Credit for that must go to Muhaymen who carried his bat throughout the 50 over innings plus almost another 8 overs of the extras, for a well deserved 30 not out batting for just under 4 hours.

It was disappointing to lose the first game but certainly positives there to look forward to with the two U13 teammates Muhaymen and Rafaay hopefully playing a big part in the season.