Ravens prey on Largo batsmen

Largo 1XI travelled to Linlithgow to take on West Lothian in a game sponsored by F.C.E. Group. Stand-in skipper Asman Ali started well by winning the toss and electing to bat. Despite a hard, good looking batting pitch it proved not to be the case. 

Largo got off the worst possible start when prolific run scorer Walker was caught at slip off the first ball of the innings. Three balls later Robinson was also walking back to the pavilion after playing a loose drive and being caught at point. M. Sharif and Kinnear slowly began to rebuild against good tight bowling aided by seam movement and swing. G. Raven, in particular, proved difficult to play and completed his 10 overs with figures of 2-16. At the other end M. Raven kept up the pressure showing a range of deliveries and took three wickets in his 10 over spell. After Kinnear (12) was out in the 20^th over a series of misjudgements and bad decision making by the batsmen meant that Largo were eventually all out for 112. Sharif made the only notable contribution with a hard fought 40 and 27 extras made it the second top scorer.

Defending a low total Largo needed early wickets and attacked from the start by bowling and fielding aggressively. M. Sharif bowled West Lothian’s opener, Vorster in the first over but Norris and Woods played their shots, flashed hard and once the ball beat the fielders it was four runs. Norris played across the line one too many times and was M. Sharif’s second victim in the fifth over. Woods was caught with the score on 42 after spooning a leading edge to Ali at mid-on off the bowling of Barclay. Ritchie was also straight into his stride bowling a neat line and length and drawing edges from the West Lothian batsmen. However, they continued to play in the same manner with Smith (44) cutting and driving well but with whole lot of luck and Largo could not hold onto a couple of sharp chances that may have given them a chance of victory. 

West Lothian won by seven wickets reaching the target in the 24^th over. Largo will hope to return to run scoring ways next weekend as they aim to do-the-double over league leaders Carlton having been the only team to beat them so far this season.