Renfrew welcomed Edinburgh Academicals to King George Fifth Playing fields in Renfrew for the first match on the new SNCL Championship season. Renfrew Captain Sai Majeed won the toss and decided to bat first on a sunny afternoon.

Overseas Professional Ahmad Said and new singing KASIF PARVEZ opened the innings for Renfrew. Kasif playing his first competitive match for Renfrew was the first wicket to fall when he was caught by Edinburgh Accies’s professional Rixon for 68 from the bowling of Moffatt with the score on 125. This brought Renfrew’s new head coach Mohammed Ramzan to join Said. They added 101 for the second wicket when he was bowled by Rixon for 48 in the 47th over. Renfrew professional Said continued on and was eventually out for 96 when he was stumped by wicket keeper Murden off Taylor’s bowling with the score on 242 in the last over. Renfrew made 246 for 5 from their 50 overs when Anjum Aslam was bowled by Taylor off the last ball of the innings.

Renfrew opened the bowling with some tight bowling from Sai Majeed and Kamran Saeed and with the first 10 balls of the innings having failed to yield any runs for Edinburgh Accies Sai Majeed struck with the 11th ball when he had Murden caught behind by Abdul Shakoor for 0. This wicket was a significant one for Sai as it was his 1,000 wicket in Renfrew colours. Accies professional Rixon then joined Sellar in the middle and the pair added 58 before Rixon was out caught by Shakoor from Imitaz Uddin’s bowling. Overseas amateur Reisima replace Rixon and he was the third wicket to fall for 44 when he was stumped by Shakoor from Parvez’s bowling leaving Accies on 129 in the 29th over chasing 247 to win the match. Abdul Shakoor was having an excellent match having rejoined Renfrew from Dunfermline in the winter and took his second stumping to remove Murden who top scored for Accies with 46 off Moshin Majeed’s bowling. Renfrew Captain Sai Majeed introduced his 7th Bowler and professional Said duly obliged when he bowled Moffatt for 26 leaving the match finely balanced with Edinburgh Accies on 182 in the 39th over. KASIF PARVEZ then capped his debut performance with the there of the final five wickets to fall when Shakoor stumped Taylor for 1 leaving Edinburgh Accies 6 runs short of victory.

This match was a very close competitive game that was dominated by both sides bowling performances which turned around the match. Renfrew captain Sai Majeed praised his teams effort in the filed especially the performance of wicket keeper Shakoor and for his all round performance KASIF PARVEZ who finished with 4 wickets for 48 from his 10 overs in addition to his 68 runs when batting. Next week Renfrew travel to Edinburgh to take on SMRH who opened their campaign with a win this weekend.