Clackmannan County Cricket Club first eleven played their first game of the season on Saturday against Strathmore. Due to the poor weather over the last two weeks, the game had to be played on the artificial wicket. However the dry weather laterally and the excellent drainage system at the Arns on the day, meant the outfield was rock hard.
Strathmore brought with them a very strong squad, including 6 players who took part in last season’s playoffs for a place in the SNCL so things were always going to be difficult for the Clackmannan side.
Captain Graeme Anderson won the toss and elected to bat first. Opening the batting with Geoff Logan and himself, the duo enjoyed the pace of Strathmore’s opening bowlers, working the ball around and running well between the wickets. It took only 11 overs for them to bring up the 50 partnership, and forcing their opponents to try to slow things down by bringing on their spin bowlers.
The change worked well, and the first wicket fell in the 15th over, with the score on 63, Logan was dismissed for 24. The run rate continued to slow up, taking another 11 overs to reach the 100 mark. In the same over, Black was caught for 17. Taking the score to 106 For 2.
The following over, Anderson brought up his half century with a 4 hit straight over the bowlers head. And along with Gordon Oliver, took the game into the last 10 overs, with 8 wickets still in hand and 120 on the board. An excellent position in which to push onto a big score. The pressure that the Clackmannan innings was putting on the Strathmore side was clearly becoming too much for one of their opening bowlers, who made several verbal abusive insults to the home batsmen.
As the Clackmannan batsmen tried to push the total forward, it was inevitable that wickets would fall, with incoming batsmen not able to afford themselves the time to adjust to the conditions. Only Tippu Sultan thrived in such circumstances, as he hit some massive sixes in his quick fire 27. The innings closed in the 40th Over with the Clackmannan score on 180 for 7.
After tea Clackmannan took to the field, Matthew Booth and Craig Black, opening the bowling. Both were bowling well, but any bad deliveries were being played well by the Strathmore openers, and any shot that went past the infield raced away to the boundary. With no wickets after the first 8 overs, Clackmannan tried to take the pace off the ball, replacing Black with Noor Jhangir. This change didn’t have the desired effect and Jhangir was replaced by Tippu Sultan, who instantly made the break through. His first over was a double wicket maiden.
From the other end Booth was still working away, fielding brilliantly off his own bowling. He also picked up two wickets at this same point in the game. Unfortunately for Clackmannan they were unable to take the wicket of Strathmore’s captain Milne who was supported well by Hazel. Strathmore showed why they were worthy of a place in the SNCL playoffs, as they manoeuvred the ball around the wicket and hit any bad balls to the boundary to overtake the Clackmannan total for the loss of four wickets.
None the less, Clackmannan fielded well and the bowlers produced several good deliveries which caused the batsmen problems. It wasn’t until the 33rd over that Strathmore passed the target required.
Next week is the first ESCA league game against Largo at Largo.