Weirs Begin League Season With A Win

It was an unusual start to the season for Weirs as issues with various grounds meant that Weirs began on a Sunday against GHK in a match played in Greenock.

GHK won the toss and put Weirs into bat. Weirs made slow but steady progress, Sameer Zia anchoring the innings, and when they were 103 for 4 after 29 overs a total of 200 looked possible. But something of a collapse followed and Weirs were eventually all out for 153. Sameer was easily top scorer with 70. Irfan Shah and Zeeshan Qamer were the only other batsmen to make double figures.

That total of 153 would soon prove to be more than enough. The GHK innings was soon reduced to tatters at 6 for 6. Although they rallied a little they could only make it to 60 all out. Mohammed Afzal, Irfan Shah and Zeeshan Qamer all took 3 wickets for Weirs.

All in all a good start for Weirs, with the bowling in particular looking in good order early in the season.

The 2nd XI had started their season 24 hours earlier with a tricky game against Hillhead 1st XI in Division 2. Hillhead batted first and made slow progress at first on a damp pitch. Albert Park were able to remove the Hillhead openers but the number 3 and 4 batsmen, Azhar and Holland took advantage of some early let-offs to hammer the bowling in the latter stages of the innings. Hillhead finished their 50 overs on 231 for 2, Azhar on 94 not out.

It never felt likely that Albert Park would reach the target of 232 and so it proved; they were bundled out for just 77. Sherali Afzal played some fine shots on his way to 36 but no one else offered much resistance. It was a reminder that Albert Park will face some tough games this season, being in the same division as 5 first teams.

In the other game on the weekend, the Sunday team won a friendly against Victoria by 35 runs.

Updated 21:35 - 30 Aug 2019 by Colin Baxter