Renfrew traveled through to Greenock for match day 2 of their Scottish Cup group on Saturday 27th April with Aneel Roy and Saquib Ali coming in for Taral Khasiya and Mohsin Majeed. Due to heavy rain on the Friday and overnight the outfield was very damp, with the groundsman working on it since 7am in an effort to get the game on their was a vast improvement but the umpires deemed it unsafe to start at the scheduled 12pm start time. The frustration was that both teams were willing to play after every inspection and the umpires would not commit to a start time.

Eventually after an early tea the start time was scheduled for 4.12pm with it being a 26 overs a side game a total loss of 48 overs. After many warm ups and countless fielding and catching drills the toss was done and skipper Sai Majeed lost again and Renfrew were put in to bat on a difficult wicket.

Ahmed Said and Ryan Murray opened the batting with Ahmed being the first to depart in the seventh over, bowled by Waleed Jamal with the scoring 15 with the score on 23, Ryan Murray followed 4 overs later for 13 with the score on 33. Wicketkeeper Abdul Shakoor was next to depart scoring 8, theb wickets were falling without the scorers being troubled too much Shahid Abassi added 28 to the score in a partnership with Kashif Pervez scoring a quick 23 before before being bowled by J.Hempsey. Kashif Pervez took the total to134 with the assistance of cameos from Aneel Roy (9) and another not out from Kamran Saeed (11) in Renfrews allotted 26 overs for the loss of 6 wickets with Kashif finishing not out with 33. It was a good recovery and it seemed a good total considering the conditions.

Renfrew made a great start with Majeed clean bowling opener and current Scotland U19 player A.Baum leaving the ball only to see it hit the stumps. In the third and fourth overs the Greenock overseas amateur F.Colson a former New Zealand U19 player, was dropped firstly by Kamran Saeed of the bowling of Majeed and then Majeed dropping a catch of the bowling of Saquib Ali, with Colson taking the attack to the Renfrew bowlers , the bowlers were rotated to try and make the breakthrough.

Skipper Majeed bowled his opposing Skipper S.Prabhu for 18 in the 9th over and this was followed by a late wicket by Saquib Ali clean bowling N.Flack for 19 who shared a crucial 69 run partnership with Colson who finished the game with a towering six out of the ground.

It was a disappointing and poor fielding and bowling performance when it seemed the players thought the game was won and the intensity and concentration was not evident in the field. The only catches which were held were the ones in the drills before the game as their were none taken during the game, which ultimately led to the loss. Their were other issues such as the delay, losing the toss, the ground conditions improving but the bottom line was it was a game which should have been won and fielding standards were poor and Greenock took advantage of that.

We are hoping to strengthen the team further next week with the possible addition of the overseas amateur and also Imran Malik who is available next week for the home game against Grange.