Job Done..

With buffeting winds and heavy downpours forecast for much of the day prospects of any play seemed remote as Largo's 1st.XI cricketers made their way over the Forth to play bottom of the table West Lothian CC at Linlithgow. With both teams keen to play and the predicted deluge not arriving the match got underway at the scheduled 1.00pm start time with the captains agreeing to reduce the match from 45 to 35 overs/side to allow for any rain interruptions.
With skipper Rintoul losing yet another toss Largo were asked to bat in the chilly, blustery conditions. The Largo skipper and Warrender opened the batting and made good progress scoring at a brisk rate taking the score to 73 in 16 overs before Warrender was bowled by Neilands for 28 when he looked really well set. Rintoul was joined by the irrepressible Naveen Getti who rattled up a rapid 31 before holing-out with the score on 126 after 25 overs.
Getti's departure brought about a mini-collapse as Rintoul followed almost immediately for a well played 60 and Coates for 1 with 126 for 2 becoming 129 for 4. Intent on maintaining the run-rate the potentially highly destructive pairing of Gillin and Khan added 46 in 6 overs before both fell to the bowling of Ashgar, Khan for 21 and Gillin for 25. Anderson(13 no) and Brown(11 no) took the final total to 201 for 6 from the 35 overs. This was a good score in the blustery but mainly dry conditions for a Largo team which saw 4 enforced changes from last weeks team.
Opening the bowling Gillin and Khan bowled very tight lines frustrating the West Lothian batsmen until Gillin achieved the breakthrough in the 7th. over when he bowled Gurr for 9. Khan followed this up next over when he had Smith well caught in the slips by Anderson for 1 and the Linlithgow side on 17 for 2 after 8 overs. Neilands and McNab showed dogged resistance as they attempted to build an innings and had reached 40 when Scott bowled McNab for 14 in the 17th.over while spinner Anderson took a good catch from his own bowling to remove Smith for 3. Batting with a runner due to an injury the doughty Nieland's innings ended on 27 when Gillin took a steepling catch in the gusty conditions from the bowling of Scott reducing the "County" team to 58 for 5.
With much reduced bowling options in this weeks team(A.Brown, F.Khan, S.Warrender and B.Bentley all absent) skipper Rintoul had to bring himself on. Bowling from a greatly reduced but highly effective run-up Rintoul took a fine return catch in his first over to deepen West Lothian's problems. The 7th. wicket fell to Scott thanks to Brown who took a well judged catch in the strong wind :58 for 7.The efforts of tailenders Smith and Halliday(both 10 no) took West Lothian to 83 from their 35 overs. A Largo win by 118 runs.
Although all of the bowlers returned very good figures including Scott's 3 wickets for 22 runs from 7 overs the ones which will attract the attention of the Largo faithful are those of the new style Rintoul - 1 for 6 from 6.
While before the start of the match the form-book would have suggested that a Largo win was on the cards the job still had to be done and the team, with some key players missing, duely delivered. This was a match played in good spirits by teams as much determined to beat the weather as the opposition. .On Saturday Largo are at home to Falkland 2.