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Wilkinson stars again with the bat as sloppy fielding costs 2nd XI in loss
81 from Wilkinson not enough to get over the line in high scoring loss to Doune & Dunblane
As Largo went in to the digital age with the first official stream of the match on the club YouTube channel, the 2nd XI welcomed Doune & Dunblane for the first time ever to East Drive on Saturday looking to build on their strong start to the season. Captain Brent Bentley lost the toss and his side were asked to field first.
Opening with Innes Macdonald and Boother the pair started off bowling economically and this pressure led to Boother getting the opening wicket of Ashmore, bowled for 10. This brought Lumsden to the crease to join Gallagher and the pair would go about building a strong partnership for the visitors.
Bentley would ring the changes but the home side would continue to shoot themselves in the foot with their fielding as they dropped a number of catches off both batters. The pair would move to 56/2 at the half way point but from here they would open up and start scoring at a high rate. Both would pass 50 as the partnership passed 100 before finally Murdo Duncan would get the wicket of Gallagher for 71. Lumsden though would continue on and reach his hundred as his side moved passed 200 to finish on 210/3, Boother returning to take a further wicket.
In reply Largo opened with Wilkinson and Patrick Smith but the later would go first ball bowled by Russell. Bentley joined Wilkinson and the partnership was moving at a good rate before an injury to Wilkinson limited his movement between the wickets leading to Bentley looking to find the boundary to counteract this and being caught at mid-off for 9 off the bowling of Kewley.
Brown and Wilkinson would keep the pressure on the visitors though as they moved the score past 100, but looking to pick up the scoring rate Brown was caught off the bowling of Ward for 24. Sandhu would come in and score a quick 18 including a towering 6 over the trees at East Drive before being dismissed soon before the big wicket of Wilkinson was also taken by Kewley, Ian making a well-played 81 for the 2nd time this season.
Tocher (19*) and Boother (23) would push the score along and run well in particular but Largo were soon running out of time to score the runs and the visitors score would prove just out of reach as the Largo side made 200/7 in their 40 overs, coming up 10 runs short.
The Largo side will be thinking what might have been had they held their catches, however they stuck at their task well in reply with the bat and will be encouraged again by making the game competitive in the losing cause. They will look to get back to winning ways next week as they welcome Clackmannanshire 2ns XI to East Drive.