By Craig Black

The Clackmannan 1st X1 travelled through to Dunfermline on Saturday to take on Dunfermline 2nds. The home team haven’t had the best of starts to the season but are widely regarded as a powerful side, so we were well aware that we would have to put in a strong performance to remain at the top of the Division 4 league. Clackmannan lost the toss and were asked to field.
 Craig Black and Rizwan Ashraf opened proceedings for the County. After a couple balls it was clear to see that there was a feast of runs available as the wicket and incredibly fast outfield offered little assistance to the bowlers. The young opening pair of Sabatta and Davidson adapted to the conditions quickly and started to score freely, as the lack of bounce in the wicket meant that they could come forward to almost every ball. The score progressed to 38 before Ashraf made the first breakthrough in the 8th over with a beautiful away swinger that caught the outside edge and was pouched by Hooper behind the stumps, a great reflex catch to his right. Black was proving expensive so was replaced by Tippu Sultan whilst Ashraf was replaced by Matthew Booth. Runs continued to flow thick and fast until the 17th over when Sultan deceived the batsmen with a slower delivery and knocked back his off stump to leave Dunfermline on 82 for 2. A new bowling change saw Keith Hefer and Alan Oliver brought into the attack. Both bowled with splendid control and accuracy and were unlucky not to have more success than they did. The partnership between Hines and Miller continued to grow and it wasn’t until Oliver was replaced by Black, that the breakthrough finally came with the score on 139 in the 33rd over, when Black clean bowled Miller for 35. Hefer was finally rewarded for his efforts a few over later when he pegged the top of off stump with a cracking leg cutter. Ashraf was reintroduced and had immediate effect as he bowled Hines for a well-played 77 to leave Dunfermline on 179 for 5 after 42 overs. Black, Ashraf and Sultan bowled the remaining 8 overs and they did well to restrict the opposition to 227 for 8 off the allotted 50 overs. Black was the pick of the attack with 4 for 44 and he was ably supported by Hefer 1-36 off 10 and Ashraf 1-46.
 After teas, Clackmannan opened with Graham Oliver and Ken Hutchison. On a 300+ batting track, the Cougars felt confident that they could chase the score down. Oliver looked in superb form and looked set for a big score until he spliced a ball to cover for a quick fire 17. Black was the next man in and immediately continued where Oliver had left off. The score raced to 50 off 10 overs before the next wicket fell when Hutchison was bowled for 3 by the very consistent left arm seam of Graveling. Graveling struck again a few balls later when last weeks hero, Hefer, was bowled without troubling the scorer. Black was looking in great nick at the other end and soon reached his second fifty of the season, but he was in need of someone to help start building a partnership with him. Sultan (10) and Gordon Oliver (0) both went cheaply which brought the ever-consistent Paul Hooper to the crease. The new pairing settled comfortably and looked set to overhaul the total. Dunfermline kept the pressure on the County boys through the accurate bowling of Graveling and Davidson and their “vocal” fielding. This pressure eventually brought reward when Black tried to glide one down to third man but only succeeded in edging behind for a well constructed 58, with the score on 113 off 24 overs. Smith went shortly afterwards without scoring, bringing Alan Oliver to the crease. The two quickly took the total to 153 before Hooper failed to middle a wide delivery and was caught at point for a solid knock of 40. Ashraf batting at number 10 didn’t last long and was caught behind for 5 to leave Clackmannan needing 54 for victory in 14 overs but with only one wicket remaining. Refusing to throw the towel in, and to the constant cheers of ‘it aint over till its over’ ringing from the grandstand, Oliver and Matthew Booth began to forge a useful stand. However this valiant effort came to an end in the 44th over when Oliver was bowled for a dogged 44 to leave Clackmannan 12 runs short. Apart from the tight bowling of Graveling, it was really a case of Clackmannan throwing away what should have been a comfortable win. On a ground that produced 65 boundaries, Dunfermline showed the importance of keeping the ball on the ground, something Clackmannan failed to do.