Greenwood Park suffered a narrow 14-run defeat at Pirton CC in their opening league fixture of 2019.

Ed Gray top scored with a superb 72 as Park looked to chase down the hosts score of 162-10, but it wasn’t enough as Greenwood were all out for 148 with one over to spare.

After Captain Chris Kent had won the toss and elected to bowl, his side got off to a strong start with Vinil Palai removing the dangerous Jake Howard for 14.

Shafaat Hussain proved key in the middle overs, taking an impressive 4-39 from his nine, but a spirited late order knock of 38 not out from Steve Groves took Pirton to a competitive total.

With the bat, Greenwood looked in control early on – despite losing Vishal Pujari for five – as Gray and Kent combined to take their team to 82-1 from 23.2 overs.

However once Kent was dismissed and Gray held out to deep mid-wicket after a fantastic innings, wickets continued to tumble for the visitors.

Howard finished with exceptional figures of 6-35 from nine as Park’s batting line up failed to deliver – the second highest scorer was Todd Jenkins with 11 on debut.

It turned out to be a disappointing loss for Greenwood, in a well-spirited game, having been in a strong position chasing a solid total.

Next week Park return home as they look to claim their first victory of the season.