Cricket: Motherwell move from bottom of table

Jun 10 2009 by Andrew Weston, Wishaw Press

MOTHERWELL Cricket club continue to make progress after a stuttering start to life in Brunton Miller Western Union Division Two, securing 16 points in their drawn match away to Anniesland on Saturday.

The result takes them off the foot of the table and should give them the belief that they can preserve their Second Division status come the end of season.

Having lost heavily to the league’s top two sides, Titwood and GU Staff, in their opening matches, an encouraging draw against fellow division two new boys Albert Park last week gave the Motherwell club hope against joint-second Anniesland.

Motherwell were without a number of regulars but, batting first, they made a solid start thanks to the experienced but makeshift opening partnership of skipper Joe Greig and Steve Young, who were up against some pacy bowling.

The innings started to build when Guna (40) joined Young (16) and the pair put on 50 for the second wicket.

However, Guna's classy knock came to an end in bizarre fashion.

He and Alaguraja (17) looked to be comfortably set when they set off for a quick single run.

As the bowler tried to reach the ball, the three players collided and ended up in a heap in mid-wicket, while the ball was thrown to the wicketkeeper, who ran out the Motherwell batsman.

The loss of a couple of cheap wickets thereafter suggested that the innings might stutter to a close but Nadeem went on the attack and played shots more akin to the 20/20 format of the game.

He held the Motherwell tail together single-handedly, and when the last wicket fell in the 50th over, Motherwell had progressed to 197, with Nadeem unbeaten on 74.

Anniesland started the chase in confident fashion.

Despite accurate bowling from Krishna and Peter Keay, the Glasgow side looked to be on course for victory until the game was turned on its head by a brilliant catch by Alaguraja in the outfield to dismiss Anniesland's dangerman.

This gave Krishna his second wicket, and with Joe Greig picking up another couple, the momentum swung in Motherwell's direction.

Greig, supported by accurate spells from Nadeem and Fraser McGlashan, kept the runs down and effectively made it impossible for Anniesland to win the game.

Although runs continued to flow, Keay returned to take two late wickets and, at the 100th over, the score closed at 168 for 7, giving Motherwell 16 points and Anniesland 11 points.

Meanwhile, second XI, Home Park, returned a comprehensive nine wicket win over Memorial Field.

Duncan MacSween's side dismissed their opponents for a paltry 54 and passed the total for the loss of only one wicket.

Alex Fraser, Sunil and young Zeeshan did the damage with the ball, and Rajesh (24 not out) and MacSweeen (17 not out) knocked off the runs in double-quick time.