Glasgow Accies entered August having won their previous two matches and looking to convert their upturn in fortunes into a genuine winning run with a successful trip down the M77 on Saturday. Prestwick, however, would provide a tough test, sitting as they did atop the WDCU on net-run rate from Stenhousemuir and only having lost only once all season.
Accies made two changes to the side that had beaten Stirling County the weak before, bringing back Cameron Russell for Imran Ameer and John Oliver for Kerr Moir.
Skipper Richard Andrew won the toss and chose to bat on a pitch that looked to have remained relatively dry and firm despite Friday evening’s rain.
The captain dropped himself one spot down the order to allow John Oliver to return as opening partner to Neil Dowers, and the pair got off to a slow start on a pitch that played more slowly than it looked and offered just enough encouragement to the seamers.
Gavin Pitt’s steady medium pace delivered three consecutive maidens at one end, while Craig Morrison’s quicker seamers looked the more likely to take a wicket, but also the more likely to go for runs.
The openers had made their way to 22 without loss in the tenth over, albeit with the help of a dropped catch and a missed run-out, before the partnership was broken when Morrison got one full, straight, and through the defences of Oliver, who was bowled for 8.
Andrew joined Dowers at the crease and immediately broke the shackles that had kept Accies scoring at around two runs per over. He took the economical Pitt for two boundaries to force him from the attack, and his aggression seemed to free up Dowers at the other end, who also began to score more fluently after his slow start.
Prestwick captain Shazhad Rafiq tried his own seamers without reward before turning to spin at both ends, with Scotland stars young and old Mitchell Rao and Andy Tennant introduced to the attack. Dowers and Andrew pushed the score to 71 in the 22nd over and were one run short of recording Accies’ second 50-run partnership of the season when Dowers injudiciously attempted to cut a Rao off-break that slid past the bat to rearrange his stumps and send him back to pavilion for a determined 33.
Accies’ captain followed shortly afterwards, having chipped the same bowler to mid-off to be frustratingly dismissed for a classy and ominous-looking 27.
At 74-3 when drinks came out, Accies may have harboured some worries about another collapse, but Lyle Hill and Nirvik Ganapathi steadied the ship with a solid 42-run stand. Ganapathi looked close to his destructive best while Hill (12) battled hard against conditions and was only undone by a wicked Morrison seamer that pitched on leg before straightening to flatten the off-stump past the hapless Accies number four’s bat.
Perhaps the most frustrating thing about the dismissal was that the heavens opened only three balls later, the forecast mid-afternoon deluge forcing the players from the field and into an early tea. Accies had laid a solid platform at 116-4 after 36, but were desperate for the chance to finish the innings with a bang.
The rain finally abated and the ground was made playable again about an hour and a half after the interruption, meaning Accies would bat six further overs and the match would be reduced to 42 overs per side.
Ganapathi took this as his cue to tee off and, with able support and hard running from Euan Sheridan (5) and Habib Malik (6), made sure the run-rate exploded; the Malik-Ganapathi combination proving particularly effective to add 37 at almost two runs per ball. When Ganapathi was dismissed for 53 from 52 balls including 6 sweetly-struck boundaries, Dave Holloway and Sandeep Dhayade (both 3*) saw the innings through to 168-7 after 42.
Special mention must be made of Rao, who bowled with calm and control throughout and finished with figures of 5-50 from 13 overs. That said, when the Duckworth-Lewis method adjusted Prestwick’s target to 193 to win in 42 overs, it was the visitors who would have been the happier of the two sides, having seen the pitch offer just enough reward for accurate bowling in the first innings.
The Prestwick chase started at a frenetic pace that would continue until the conclusion of the match. Indeed, the first ball of the innings saw Prestwick’s talented young wicketkeeper Michael Miller compound a miserable day in which he had dropped a catch and conceded byes, penalty runs and overthrows by chipping a soft return catch to the jubilant Malik.
Rafiq, fresh from a century against local rivals Kilmarnock, joined overseas amateur and league-leading run scorer Abhi Prasad at the crease, and the pair sped Prestwick to 24 at more than a run a ball as Accies’ openers struggled for control in windy conditions.
Habib Safi’s wayward spell (1-26) was not to be without consolation, however, when the dangerous left-hander Prasad spooned a half-tracker to a surprised and delighted Ganapathi at mid-wicket.
At 24-2, the game was in the balance, but Rafiq and professional Tim Spence looked to upset the scales in favour of the hosts with a pair of vicious, counter-attacking innings. The two added 53 in 47 balls and looked untroubled, collecting three boundaries and steepling six apiece as the scoreboard sped along towards the total.
Accies could do little but try to hit their lengths and keep repeating that, on a pitch like this, a chance would come eventually. Sure enough, that chance came when Spence launched an Andrew length ball into the upper atmosphere above square leg. The ball was so high that just about any fielder in the inner ring could have got underneath it, but young Oliver at square leg steadied himself serenely beneath the swirling catch and coolly secured a match-changing dismissal.
From this point there was a procession of Prestwick batsmen to and from the middle as the match was wrapped up in quick time. Rafiq was the next to go, mishitting the beleaguered Malik straight up in the air to be pouched by keeper Holloway in the middle of the pitch.
Ross Patterson went next when he dropped the ball to the right of Dowers at short mid-wicket, took off for a single, was sent back by his partner, and failed to ground his bat ahead of the fielder’s side-arm return over the stumps to the gleeful Holloway.
At 85-5, Accies knew that they had firmly taken control of the match, but were also aware that they have been on the end of bigger comebacks this season, so focus and continued pressure was essential if they were to secure victory.
Oliver was introduced to the attack and produced a fine spell to put the match beyond doubt. He bowled two tight overs including a maiden, consistently finding a good length and extracting just enough help from the pitch to look dangerous before he was justly rewarded with the wicket of Willie Rowan, edging behind to the busy Holloway.
Stafford was trapped lbw by Malik (3-43) at the other end before Oliver (4-12) ended proceedings in style with an excellent hat-trick. First Morrison was clean-bowled by a wicked delivery angled in from around the wicket and seaming back to flatten the left-hander’s leg stump. The same stump was knocked clean out the ground one ball later, when the young seamer found the perfect spot to a new tailender: full, straight, and forcing its way past a defensive prod. The hat-trick ball to Pitt was also full and straight and nipped back just enough to thud into the pad, leaving umpire Colin McClardie in no doubt and the match concluded in a 94-run victory.
The success was met with raucous celebrations from the New Anniesland boys, who have suffered so many defeats this season that it might have been easy to let the heads drop and give up hope. At 77-2 after 11 overs, few would have expected such a dramatic collapse to 98 all out from the league leaders, and even the most optimistic Accies would not have dared to predict such a comprehensive victory in the run up to the match.
12 points see Accies move to third-bottom ahead of next week’s opponents Kilmarnock on net run rate, and now more than two wins clear of languishing St Michael’s in last place.
Next week’s encounter at New Anniesland promises to be a hotly contested match as Accies hope to move into a position of mid-table security before travelling to the league’s new leaders, Stenhousemuir, in two weeks’ time.