By Craig Black

Clackmannan 1st X1 played host to Edinburgh University Staff and continued on their winning ways with another easy victory on Saturday by giving the EUS team a lesson in basic cricket 101. At half 11 it appeared that the MetOffice had managed to correctly predict a wet and unsettled day but through the efforts of Club President and Groundsman, David Henderson, the County boys took to the field on time after winning the toss and deciding the opposition should bat on a bowler friendly wicket.

Clackmannan turned to Rizwan Ashraf and Matthew Booth to get proceedings under way and it didn’t take long for the home side to take the initiative with Booth and Ashraf each picking up a wicket in the first 5 overs to leave EUS at 8 for 2. The 2 continued to bowl an immaculate line and length making scoring very difficult, and as a result the batsmen decided to block out until the bowling change. After 10 overs the score was 18 for 2 when Craig Black and Tippu Sultan were introduced to the attack. With the batsmen now settled, they run rate started to pick up and it wasn’t until the 24th over that the breakthrough finally came. Black was replaced by Keith Hefer and in his second over trapped the remaining opener Steve Malkin LBW, having moved the score onto 54. Sultan and Hefer continued and the pairing quickly put Clackmannan back in the driving seat by picking up 2 wickets apiece in the space of 7 overs to leave EUS sitting precariously on 64 for 7. Hefer did well to remove both Kiely and Vijaykumar with similar deliveries that tempted the batsmen into playing unsuccessfully across their pads. Sultan managed to clean bowl Dasgupta before inducing Harley into a rash cover drive, which caught the edge and was sharply taken by wicketkeeper Paul Hooper. Clackmannan had lost out on promotion in 2007 after being defeated by EUS from an identical position and they were determined not to let history repeat itself. After a brief 25 run partnership, Black managed to clean bowl the hard-hitting Sundaram before Ashraf cleaned bowled the number 10. The last wicket fell a few balls later when some athletic fielding by Richard Passe gifted Clackmannan with an easy run out. This was a clinical performance by the Cougars to limit the opposition to 91 and was epitomised by brilliant ground fielding and disciplined bowling. Pick of the bowlers was Keith Hefer with 3-20 and he was ably supported by Ashraf 2-7 off 9 and Sultan 2-18.

With confidence running high, Dan Smith and Graham Oliver opened the batting and immediately set about dismantling the experienced opening EUS bowling line up. Fantastic running between the wickets and skilled shot placement by the pair helped the scoreboard race to 44 within 7 overs. Both were looking in great form and it was disappointing not to see them bat the innings out. Smith was first to go when a ball kept low and bowled him for 19 and he was followed a couple overs later when Oliver was bowled by a cracking delivery from Harley that nipped off the seam and knocked back his off stump for 17. It was left to Black (33not out) and Hefer (14 not out) to steady the ship and lead Clackmannan over the finish line in only the 15th over.

This leaves the Cougars with 3 wins on the trot and sitting happily at the top of division 4. This string of solid performances will be taken on the road next week as Clackmannan County make the trip out to Tyninghame to play Haddington, one of the league favourites.