By James Couper

On a blisteringly warm day at The Arns on Saturday a young Clackmannan 2nd XI team played hosts to Kismet’s 2nd XI. They were keen to avenge the defeat suffered by the 1st XI at the hands of Kismet’s 1st XI a couple of weeks prior. With promotion all but secured for Clackmannan and with a struggling Kismet side sitting second bottom of the league table everything pointed towards a Clackmannan victory. Captain Scott Malcolmson duly won the toss and put his faith in his batsmen to secure a good total, whilst ensuring Kismet suffered the worst of the midday heat!  Clackmannan’s opening pair of Noor Jhangir and Dan Smith got off to a steady start before a sharp piece of fielding by Kismet’s opening bowler, Farhan Yousaf, sent Jhangir trudging back to the pavilion, caught and bowled for 12. Smith followed soon after, scoring 10. Aided by some generous umpiring, Kismet found their 3rd wicket the very next ball when James Couper was adjudged LBW. (Who wrote this report again, Ah!) Perplexed, Couper made his way off the field bringing Paddy Mitchell to the crease. A good run rate was restored with Neil Ramsay playing some fine strokes before being bowled for a well earned 27. Skipper, Scotty took up position at the crease with the score at 68 for 4 – departing equally quickly having faced 2 balls. At this stage things were looking rather ominous for a Clackmannan side who have yet to be bowled out for less than 100 this season. Nerves were soon calmed with some positive batting from Mitchell and Greig Taylor, putting on a partnership of 57 and taking the total well past 100. Taylor was eventually bowled for 24 after attempting to send the ball into orbit – however the prospect of early half-time teas might just have been too luring for him to hang around!  The Clackmannan tail saw out the remaining 10 overs safely, with Mitchell being undone with a few overs to go for a hard fought 39. Clackmannan finished on 163 for 9 wickets, which if previous performances were anything to go by, was a score they could be confident of defending.
Clackmannan opened their bowling attack with pace bowlers Neil Ramsay and Blair Campbell. Both looked promising from the start and the first wicket didn’t take long in coming; opening batsman Singh looking to drive Campbell on the off side succeeded only in lofting it straight into the grateful hands of James Couper at point. An almost identical delivery by Neil Ramsay the following over, brought Clackmannan’s second wicket. Then followed a period of about 15 overs where Kismet batsmen came and went without adding any significant amount to the scoreboard. With little being given away in the field and with some confident catching by Clackmannan’s fielders the pressure was mounting on the Kismet batsmen, who were struggling to hit it past the infield, finding themselves 73 for 8 after only 21 overs. During this period Kismet found momentary relief from the onslaught of the Clackmannan’s young bowling as the Clackmannan skipper adopted the rather unorthodox fielding position adjacent to, and in clear view of the bowling crease. This brought a rye smile to the faces of the Clackmannan fielders. Bringing Ramsay back into the attack in the 27th over brought the wicket of Yousaf, out LBW, who had anchored Kismet’s innings scoring 31. Wicket number 9 took some time in coming as both Clackmannan’s bowling and fielding was becoming sloppy. With some intelligent bowling from Malcolmson, the final wicket fell in the 29th over, the catch being taken cleanly by Alistair Band.  Apart from under 16 player Bashar Ahmads fine 30 not out, which belied his lowly position in the batting order, Kismet's late order succumbed to the Clackmannan bowling attack.  Ramsay finished with 3 for 21 in 8 overs, Band 2 for 17, Jhangir 2 for 12 and Malcolmson 2 for 18.

Another impressive performance by Clackmannan, who are moving closer to playing one division higher in ESCA next season.
On Saturday the 2nd’s travel to Dalgety Bay to play Dunfermline 3rds.