Cricket: Kilmarnock try to get season back on track

Jul 9 2008

KILMARNOCK were hoping for a break in the weather this weekend so they could get their season back on track.

The 1st XI were at home this week against Torrance House and although the rain had left the wicket pretty wet the grounds man got the pitch ready to start after a short half an hour delay.

In the absence of captain Alan Hill, vice-captain Alistair Smith took over and unfortunately lost the toss.

Unsurprisingly Torrance House asked Kilmarnock to bat first on a wicket that would be helpful to the bowlers early on. In the absence of Hill and regular opening partner Mohammed Alem, who had broken his finger the week before, Kilmarnock opened the batting with Zeeshand Saeed and new recruit Ahtsham Dost.

Unfortunately for Kilmarnock, Saeed missed a straight ball in the second over and departed for six with the score on 14. This brought Smith to the crease to join Dost and the pair put on a controlled partnership of 110 in 22 overs.

Smith did his best to give the strike to the more attacking Dost who departed for a very impressive 73 just before the drinks break.

Bilal Baig then joined Smith and the pair started to accelerate the scoring with Baig falling one short of his 50 after a mix up in the running.

The rain began to fall very heavily and with Torrance House becoming very unhappy with the conditions captain Smith decided to declare the innings with the hope the weather cleared up and Kilmarnock could bowl out their opponents.

This left Smith stranded on 79 not out, his highest score for the 1st XI and only 21 short of a maiden century but the most important thing was that the team had the chance to claim the 25 points and that is what the batsmen had allowed their bowlers to do.

Fortunately for Kilmarnock the rain cleared up and the wicket dried sufficiently allowing the game to continue and Kilmarnock seemed firm favourites with a total of 226 to defend.

Unfortunately for captain Smith his decision to declare early backfired spectacularly as his bowlers and fielders let him down very badly.

After making a couple of early inroads Kilmarnock had Torrance House at 38 for two but then contrived to drop a number of simple catches and bowl a staggering 38 wides. With the exception of the always reliable Zubeer Pasha who bowled a staggeringly accurate 18.4 overs for the loss of only 28 runs with six maidens.

B Kampman (88 not out) and R Kalahofa (82 not out) put a very patient 189 off of 42 overs and they have to be given massive credit for battling through some tough conditions but the bowlers just didn’t perform and when the fielders give both batsmen chances early on it is always going to be difficult.

Next week there will have to be a massive improvement in both the bowling and fielding if their results are going to improve.

Unfortunately the weather got the better of the 2nd XI’s match with Scotindians in Hamilton this weekend. Kilmarnock had started well with a wicket falling in the second over but the conditions became very dangerous to bowl and field in and the rain became so heavy that both captains decided there was no chance of play after the 2nd over.

The under 18s were also denied a chance to play on Monday night as Weirs under 18s couldn’t fulfil the fixture. This was very disappointing for the boys as they want to play but the fixture will hopefully be re-arranged for a later date.