Cricketers squash Stenny:
Captain Singh’s squad stay on their winning form
The league title is still within East Kilbride Cricket Club’s sights after they hammered bottom dogs Stenhousmuir at Torrance House.
Fresh from last week’s sensational Rowan Cup triumph and a seven wicket win over Kelburne, in-form East Kilbride won by 152 runs to inflict a 10th defeat in 13 games for the Falkirk outfit.
EK won the toss and elected to bat in this 50-over match, but they got off to a bad start, losing their first wicket with only five runs on the board.
However, captain Harmanjit Singh and Gavin Meikle batted beautifully to rebuild EK’s innings, and in very attacking style.
At one stage they were batting at seven runs an over as Stenny struggled to control the pair, who ran incredibly well between the wickets with sharp and quick singles combined with cover drives that raced off to the boundary.
When Singh lost his wicket for 26 runs and ended on a very impressive 74 run partnership with Meikle, the latter continued to play aggressively.
In the end that was Meikle’s undoing when he tried to play one shot too many and departed off the field for an entertaining 46 runs.
This brought Petrus Coetzee and Moneeb Iqbal to the crease with EK on 98-3 with 31 overs remaining. Thus a solid partnership was needed to maintain momentum throughout their innings.
And that is exactly what Iqbal and Coetzee did.
The longer the pair stayed at the crease the better the partnership got as they batted sensibly.
Iqbal eventually decided to take certain bowlers on and bat more aggressively. When Iqbal lost his wicket for a brilliant 66 it ended a majestic 99 run partnership between Iqbal and Coetzee.
Coetzee (38) lost his wicket at a crucial time just after Iqbal to leave EK with no set batsmen in the last 10 overs of the innings.
This was a minor set back for EK who were hoping to post a gigantic total.
Luckily, Josh Johnston made a quick fire 23 runs not out and was well supported by Stewart Kampman (12) to help EK post a competitive 258/6 in their allotted 50 overs.
Although EK had the runs on the board and Stenny are bottom of the league, EK knew that they still posed a threat.
Stewart Kampman bowled a disciplined eight over spell with the new ball, picking up one wicket and only conceding 20 runs, to give EK a solid start to defend their total.
Umair Saeed also bowled very economically and did not allow Stenny to get the flying start they would have hoped for.
As the pressure built and the run rate increased, EK got their second wicket through a run out.
And when Umair Saeed(1-20) managed to get EK’s third wicket by finding the outside edge and making captain Sighn take a rather fine catch at gully, it was clear that EK were on their way to an impressive victory.
Ross Lyons ensured that Stenny would remain under the pump by taking a few quick wickets with his introduction to the bowling attack, leaving Stenny at 58/5.
Lyons ended a superb 10 over spell by taking two more wickets. Iqbal also took two wickets and Johnston took the last wicket of the day to bowl Stenhousemuir out for 106 and win by a massive 152 runs.
EK are away to Dumfries on Saturday and they hope to maintain this winning momentum for as long as they can, with the title still mathematically possible.
Otherwise a second placed spot is highly likely and will definitely be the minimum aim for the team in the remaining games to come.
Saturday’s match in Dumfries gets underway at noon.