Clackmannan have a Silva lining! Reporter -Brent Bentley

On a muggy day at East Drive, Clackmannan County were the visitors against a Largo team hoping to get back to winning ways after a loss to Morton and a rained off match last week. After heavy rain overnight both teams would surely be keen to bowl first on a fairly green wicket. A change in captain for the day in Bentley didn’t change the Largo teams luck as as with all 11 games this season Largo lost the toss and were batting.
Largo opened with Kinnear and D.Coates and despite some good bowling got off to a steady start with Coates especially punishing any wayward deliveries to the boundary. The opening pair put on 25 until the Clackmannan openers got a deserved breakthrough with Kinnear edging behind to the keeper for 4. This brought Getti to the crease and runs continued to flow with the score on to 51 before Clackmannan introduced bowler Silva to the attack which is where the state of the game quickly changed. Silva bowling a spell as quick and accurate as any seen at East Drive over the years had many a batsman scrabbling around for helmets as he went about mainly destroying the stumps of the Largo batsman. Starting with D.Coates being dismissed for 31, Silva in conjunction with Mehmoob reduced the Largo team from 51-1 to 61-7 with Largo's middle order having no answer to Silva’s pace in particular. By the time Silva's spell of 5-17 had finished Largo had recovered slightly with Anderson and M.Khan moving the score on to 93 before M.Khan was dismissed for a typically big hitting 18. A last wicket partnership of 35 between Anderson and captain Bentley helped to give Largo a score to defend however after such a good start Largo were a little disappointed with the score despite the heroics of Silva.
After tea Largo set about trying to get early wickets to put pressure on the visitors. Opening with Brown and F.Khan it was Brown who made the breakthrough removing Mehmoob caught by keeper Kinnear for 12. Clackmannan however recovered and it wasn’t till the score had moved on to 55 before the introduction of Gillin to the attack brought about 2 quick wickets including the dangerous Silva first ball with a perfect nip back delivery to remove his off stump. Largo now looked to be right on top with Bentley and Anderson keeping the scoring rate down also with Largo searching for wickets. However luck was not with the Largo side and with a few shots in to gaps and a few chances of catches and run outs missed it was with only 20 runs to get that Brown after being reintroduced to the attach removed Oliver for 34. Gillin also chipped in with another wicket but Clackmannan reached the target to win by 5 wickets with 2 overs to go.
With the bowling of Silva the real difference on the day in a tight match the Largo team will not be too upset with how they played and will be looking to get back to winning form against Broomhall next Saturday.