Arbroath v Alloa XI

Sunday 29 April

by T. Sultan

Clackmannan 3XI Started the season with a brilliant win over Arbroath 3rdXI. On a bright Sunday afternoon Clackmannan 3XI took a long journey to Arbroath to play their first league game of the season.
Captain T Sultan lost the toss and was surprisingly asked to bat first on which looked like a good Batting wicket. Clackmannan opened their inning with T Sultan and A Hullat. Arbroath XI surprisingly young side started troubling Clackmannan batsman. Young Talented A Hullat was the first wicket to fall in very second over of the game and then the Wicket of T Mehboob in third as Clackmannan battled the cold high winds in the middle.  Team knew the only way forward was to have partnerships even small to give Clackmannan 3XI a chance to recover, which they did really well after skipper departed for fought 21 N Jhangir 27 and A Alamgir 26 put on a 51 run partnership followed by small partnerships by G Taylor 17, K Ali 8, D Heggie 21 and A Deacon 8 a complete committed team effort to help Clackmannan 3XI reach the total of 154. If Clackmannan was to win the game they will have to fight hard and work together.
After teas team took to the field for the second half of the game. Team needed to bowl tight knowing that the skipper opened the bowling with W Kay and himself, both bowler bowled tight but did not succeed in getting wicket. Arbroath had reached 42 without a wicket and were looking strong , it was the first change which saw A Alamgir taking a Wicket on the second bowl of his spell followed By T Mehboob on the fourth bowl of his spell.  A good throw by T Mehboob saw batsman number  three run out and then wickets kept falling as A Alamgir and N Jhangir kept the bowl tight getting the batsman to make mistakes. Bowling figures ended with A Alamgir with 4 wickets, T Mehboob , N Jhangir  taking 2 wickets each followed by A Hullat taking 1. Arbroath XI were all out for 130 in 44.1 over. A good win and a great team effort by Clackmannan 3XI, hoping to continue their positive start to the season. Man of the Match for the Game goes to A Alamgir  with 26 runs and 4 wickets.