RELEGATION BATTLE NOW ON.

The players disappointment was palpable on Saturday evening when Largo's 1st.XI cricketers went down to their second 8 wicket defeat in successive weekends losing to Marchmont at East Drive, Upper Largo. Perhaps even more disappointed than the rest of the team was vice-captain Asman Ali who when batting was out 5 runs short of an elusive century.
Winning the toss and batting first Largo hoped to set Marchmont a challenging target on East Drive's first class batting track. With Asman Ali building on the fine form he had shown earlier in the season Largo reached the drinks interval with 101 on the scoreboard and only 2 wickets down. Largo skipper Gordon Kinnear's struggle to find form continued as he was bowled early in the innings by a slow,dipping full-toss while Naveen Getti was caught in the deep after scoring a quickfire 27.
A total of around 250 should have been well within Largo's reach but unfortunately none of the middle-order batsmen could give Ali the support he required with only Rintoul(16) making a double figure contribution before Ali was dismissed in the 43rd over for a very fine 95 and the score on 180 for 7. As usual the "tail" wagged and added 29 with Robertson(13) and Scott(14no)the main contributors taking Largo to 209 for 9 after 50 overs.
Ervine was the pick of the Marchmont bowlers with 3 for 41 although all put in hardworking shifts on a batter friendly wicket.
Marchmont openers Maksinczyk and M.Ahmed set their stall out early batting with patience in the initial overs and gradually building their innings recognising their team's reported shortage in the batting department. Despite frequent bowling changes and no little effort from the bowlers Largo could not achieve a breakthrough with the openers reaching 132 at drinks.
Spinner Anderson who had come on to bowl just before drinks finally had Maksinczyk back in the pavilion, stumped Kinnear, for 66 in the 27th. over. This was too little too late as Collier and Ahmed virtually saw the visitors home before Collier was caught behind from the bowling of Brown. Ahmed finished on 91 not out with Marchmont finishing with 8 wickets and 8 overs in hand.
The Largo bowlers can certainly claim to have had their full share of bad luck as the frequent edges flew to the boundary over the lightening fast outfield but luck has nothing to do with the catches which were put down and could have made a big difference to the outcome of the match.
Largo are now deep in the relegation zone of ESCA Division 1 and on Saturday have a must win match away to Dunfermline.