FIRSTS FLOUNDER

The dark clouds which gathered over East Drive, Upper Largo on Saturday were perhaps a reflection of the mood of the Largo 1st.XI cricketers who lost by 54 runs to Musselburgh. With key opening bowler Robertson, young quickie Baddeley and all-rounder Gillin all unavailable Largo skipper Kinnear went into the match with limited bowling options to contend with a strong Musselburgh line-up on a good batting wicket encircled by a lightning fast outfield.
Winning the toss and electing to bat Musselburgh's Ullah and Gemmell made steady progress until Bentley trapped Ullah LBW for 14 in the ninth over and the score on 26. Gemmell was joined by Dale in a partnership which was to be the foundation of Musselburgh innings. With Scott struggling to find a good length and some very indifferent Largo fielding the visitors had reached 88 at drinks without further loss and had created a launch-pad for an assault on the Largo bowling. This was stalled when a clearly tiring Gemmell was bowled by the persevering Scott for 61 in the 29th.over with the score on 98. Spinner Anderson and Bentley, returning for his second spell, removed Tufail(5) and Dilly(16) while Dale remained solid until Rintoul having bowled an aggressive, economical first spell came back to dismiss him for a hardworking 33.
Ahmed(10) was also bowled by Rintoul while Gatner(11)was "run out" by Duncan following a mid-wicket pile-up. With Musselburgh on 167 for 7 with 6 overs left Largo had hopes of keeping the Musselburgh score below 200. Verma clearly had other ideas scoring 33 before being "stumped " from a wide ball bowled by Brown in what was to be a chaotic last over which also saw Khalid caught by Kinnear and Robertson "run out" by Warrender. Musselburgh finishedd on 202 all out.
Despite some poor ground-fielding holding Musselburgh to 202 was a fairly decent effort in the circumstances and certainly an attainable target for Largo.
Musselburgh's Robertson however was to dash Largo's hopes as with guile and gentle movement of the ball he bowled the top three Largo batsmen cheaply reducing Largo to 28 for 3 with only eleven overs gone(Rintoul -9:Warrender-12:Getti-0). Anderson and Ali rekindled Largo's hope as they established a solid partnership of 92 but they could not build sufficient momentum against the "yorker" length deliveries of Verma or the spin of Dilly and Ullah to get the team near the target. Ali was "stumped" by Tufail from the bowling of Dilly for 27 and Anderson went in similar fashion having scored an excellent 71. Largo were 148 all out in 48 overs with Dilly taking 4 for 33 and Robertson a remakable 3 for12 from their 10 over spells.
Having bowled Musselburgh out and scored 125+ runs largo at least have the consolation of full bowling points and 2 batting points both of which seemed unlikely in the early stages of the match. On Saturday borders team St.Boswells make their first visit to East Drive..