Eight-wicket win secures third spot

Jun 4 2009 by Andrew McGilvray, Hamilton Advertiser

IN blistering sunshine Tunnock Uddingston Cricket Club demolished Greaves Clydesdale by eight wickets in Saturday’s Scottish National Cricket League premier division match at Bothwell Castle Policies.

The Villagers are now third in the table following five games.

Paul Hoffmann, Vinny Bird and Tom Plant were the architects in chief, with Hoffmann bowling a superb 4-21 while Bird and Plant both recorded 81 not out.

Clydesdale won the toss and elected to bat first, opening with former Saltires star Greg Williamson and Harmanjit Singh facing Hoffmann and captain Ricky Bawa.

While Australian Hoffmann was able to keep one end relatively quiet, Williamson was savaging the usually economical Bawa, to the extent that he took himself out of the attack after three overs to be replaced by Plant.

In the seventh over Hoffmann had Singh caught behind by Bryan Clark but, undeterred, Williamson plundered more runs until Plant had him caught in the deep by Bill in the 10th over when he had made 37 runs.

Up to this point Clydesdale had been scoring at the rate of seven per over and had threatened to bat the Villagers out of the game when Bawa turned to spinner Aamir Gul and Imran Adrees to stem the flow of runs.

In a fine 20-over spell the pair conceded a modest 80 runs, a vast improvement on what had gone previously.

During this spell of bowling, a 99-run partnership between Zulfi Shahid and Kasim Farid had taken Clydesdale to 180-2 after 40 overs, when Hoffmann returned to finish his ration of overs with sensational results.

With his second ball he clean-bowled Shahid and had Farid LBW with his fourth delivery, taking Hoffmann to 4-21 in 10 overs.

Two run-outs and a consolation wicket for Bawa saw Clydesdale post a target of 227 for the loss of eight wickets.

Captain Bawa sent Plant and Hoffmann to open the innings, with Williamson and Mo Asfal opening the attack for the visitors.

Emulating Williamson’s performance for Clydesdale, Hoffmann took the Villagers to 48 in six overs, at which point his wicket fell.

Gul joined Plant and they took the score to 70 before Aamir was caught behind in the 14th over.

This brought Bird to partner the professional and in a partnership full of exquisite shots and good running between wickets, the duo put in a match-winning performance with each recording 81 not out as Uddingston ended on 228 for 2.

Uddingston face a tough challenge on Saturday when Edinburgh cracks Carlton are the visitors in Scotland’s match of the day.

Hamilton Cricket Club extended their lengthy unbeaten run on Saturday, but only just, as a controversial one-wicket win over Ardrossan gave them the points.

Ardrossan were sent in to bat first and some impressive bowling reduced the Ayrshire side to 125 all-out.

Lilley consolidated his return to the team by taking five wickets, while Amir Virk picked up a couple of wickets during an impressive performance.

Richardson took three catches at mid-on and balls were also taken by Afzal and Reddy.

However Hamilton fared little better with the bat and had reached only 105 with one wicket remaining.

In a tense finish the last pairing of Reddy and Virk had levelled the scores, with Reddy contributing a couple of boundaries on the way.

A quick single was then called for, which led to an appeal from Ardrossan for a run-out, but the umpire turned this down and Hamilton took the win.

Hamilton have a break this weekend but return to league duty on Saturday, June 13 when they travel to Clydesdale Cavaliers.

Hamilton’s midweek team, Thistle, play Clydesdale XI in a cup match at Titwood on Tuesday.