Cricket: Bad weekend for Kilmarnock Cricket Club

Jun 26 2009 by Clair Fullarton, Kilmarnock Standard

IT was a bad weekend for Kilmarnock Cricket Club as the 1st XI lost in the league on Saturday and in the Small Clubs Cup on Sunday.

Saturday saw Killie travel to Springburn Park for the second consecutive week to play Active Life Cricket Club.

The home side were sitting comfortably at the top of the league, having won four out of five games so far.

Captain Alistair Smith won the toss and decided that the best opportunity to gain points from the match was to bowl first.

Active Life got off to a flying start by putting on 62 for the first wicket before Smith (1 for 28) removed opener Raj for 23. Fizan (75) was the next wicket to fall with the score on 218 as the Killie bowlers struggled to bowl on the artificial wicket against a very aggressive batting side.

No more wickets fell in the innings as Wajid (110 not out) and Fazal (59 not out) took Active Life to 311 for 2, before declaring after just 42 overs.

The Kilmarnock innings got off to the worst possible start as Rasim (2 for 15) removed both Smith and the in-form Alem without scoring.

After this Kilmarnock struggled as batsmen gifted their wickets to some very average bowling and were dismissed for 144 to give Active Life a 167-run victory. Alun Johnstone (44) and Zubeer Pasha (35) were the top scorers for the away side and Wajid capped his man of the match performance by taking 4 for 16 in his short bowling spell.

At the half way stage in the season, Kilmarnock have won four out of eight games in the league. This is disappointing as they started off by winning the first three. Hopefully a visit by GHK Strathclyde to Kirkstyle on Saturday will allow the 1st XI to get back to winning ways.

The 2nd XI entertained Garscube at Kirkstyle on Saturday in a match which was threatened by overnight rain. Batting first the visitors posted 165 for 8 off their 50 overs, Mohammed Azeem picking up two wickets.

Kirkstyle managed to secure a losing draw by batting out the overs to finish on 123 for 9, with Jon Raine finishing 17 not out. Captain David Nimbley scored 32 opening the batting, and continues his fine from with both bat and ball.

Next week the 2nd XI travel to play Moorcroft as they aim to record some wins in the second half of the season.

On Sunday Kilmarnock travelled to Dumfries to play St Michaels in the Small Clubs Cup quarter final.

Having arrived at the ground in the rain, captain Alistair Smith was hoping to win the toss. However, this was not to be and Kilmarnock were asked to bat on a used and uneven wicket.

Having struggled at the start, Mohammed Alem (29) and Scott Weir (54) put on 69 for the third wicket from just 10 overs. Chris Brockwell (4 for 10) and F Shah (3 for 14) did the damage with the ball as Tom McFadzean (20) was the only other batsmen to reach double figures and Killie were dismissed for just 135.

St Michaels’ innings didn’t get off to the best of starts as McFadzean removed two batsmen with the score on just 18.

This brought the home-sides overseas amateur, P Sullivan, to the crease. He and opening batsmen Ahsunal (18 not out) then produced an 88-run partnership to take them to within touching distance of the win. McFadzean came back on to bowl Sullivan for 69 with a well directed yorker.

However, the home-side made it to their target with almost 20 overs to spare for a convincing seven wicket win.

St Michaels were the better team on the day, but with Kilmarnock missing a large number of players for last weekend’s games, who knows how far they could have gone with a full strength team.

Friday night saw Kilmarnock’s under 15s record another very impressive win against Uddingston. Batting first the juniors posted 128 for 5, which is their highest-ever total at this age group. On a night when most of the batsmen got into double figures, Mohammed Azeem top scored with 36.

The visitors run chase got off to a good start as they reached 66 for 2 off 11 overs. However, a devastating spell from Azeem, in which he took five wickets for the loss of just 8 runs, saw Uddingston dismissed for 80, giving Killie a 48-run victory.

Another great result for the juniors reflects all of the hard work they have put in during the winter training sessions.