Largo come up just short. Reporter - B. Bentley

After last weeks home win Largo first XI were on their travels again this time to Alloa to play Clackmannan County. On a spongy wicket with a very soft outfield the home side skipper Arshaf won what proved to be a very good toss to win and put Largo in to bat. Openers Warrender and Gillin looked to be going well before the loss of 3 quick wickets, with both openers and F Khan gone, resulting in Largo struggling on 20-3. This brought together the partnership of Anderson, playing hist first game of the year and Kinnear who started on rebuilding the Largo innings. The pair put on a hard working partnership of 43 including Kinnear having to recover from a heavy collision with an opponent when completing a quick single. The partnership however finished with Anderson caught for 20 off the tight bowling of Mehmood with 15 overs to go.
This wicket brought in captain Rintoul and with it a change in the momentum of the innings. Kinnear and Rintoul started finally finding the boundaries with Kinnear hitting a massive 6 over mid-wicket which emphasised the ease with which the Largo batsmen where now scoring. 39 was put on by the pair in no time before Kinnear fell for a well played 35 with 104 on the board. This unfortunately led to a quick fall of wickets when a continuation of impetus was required with 3 more wickets falling leaving the score on 116 for 8. Bentley and Matt Baddeley though did manage a quick partnership of 19 in the closing overs which meant that the score finished on 137 for 9 off 45 overs which looked like a competitive total if maybe a few runs short of a par score.

Largo opened with F Khan and Brown and immediately looked threatening with the opposition looking to get ahead of the scoring rate early on a noticeably improving batting pitch. Khan made the breakthrough on 23 bowling opposition overseas player Hefer for 6. Some big hitting however from Mehmood meant that Clackmannan were heading well towards their target till on 45 Khan got Mehmood for a powerful 32. Bentley, Scott and Anderson in the middle overs then slowed down the scoring rate bowling tightly without being able to get any further wickets with the score being 76-2 at the halfway mark. Eventually with the score on 83 Scott bowled Oliver Jnr for 13 and Largo sensed an opening back in to the match.
The wicket however instead brought about a slow period of play from the opposition batsmen with very few runs being scored. The introduction of Gillin to the attack was the main catalyst for this bowling a good line and length at good speed.With 13 runs to get and 8 overs to go Gillin was rewarded with the wicket of Oliver Snr for a patient 33 caught behind by keeper Warrander. The game then looked like it may be not as simple for the opposition as they thought when Gillin got another 2 wickets in his next over leaving Clackmannan needing 10 off 5 overs now with 4 wickets remaining. A thrilling finish however was not to be with Captain Arshaf hitting the remaining runs quickly leaving the Largo team wondering what might have been had they managed a few more runs.

Overall like in their first game of the season Largo didn’t get the best of conditions and will feel that had they won the toss things may have played out differently. Good performances however were seen by many in the team with Gillin's spell of 3-7 off 6 overs and the opening spell of Khan the highlights. Next week Largo will hope home advantage helps them again at East Drive against Broomhall.