By Craig Black

Clackmannan Cougars back to winning ways (a Craig Black production!!)

The Clackmannan First X1 made the short trip over to New Williamfield to take on Stirling 2nd’s in the final pre season friendly on Saturday. Looking to avenge their defeat at the hands of Strathmore last week, the Clackmannan team lost the toss and were put in to field by the home side. Riswan Ashraf and Matthew Booth opened the attack, and we didn’t have to wait long for the breakthrough as Booth trapped the young opener in front of his stumps with a late outswinger, with the score on 20. Craig Black and Tippu Sultan replaced the opening pair and immediately starting giving the batsmen trouble. Black was rewarded in the 15th over when he bowled the remaining opener. The very next ball was a carbon copy of the previous ball and caught the batsmen on the pads leaving the umpire with little choice but to raise the finger. Two overs later and Black had his third wicket when he bowled the left-handed number 4 with the score on 43-4. The next two batsmen took the attack to Clackmannan with some hard hitting and the scoreboard started to accelerate. It wasn’t until Ashraf came back into the attack with the score on 115 that the vital wicket fell. Ashraf’s consistency being rewarded, as he knocked over the batsmens middle stump. Four balls later and he had his second wicket bowling the new batsmen who didn’t offer a shot with a big inswinger. The remaining wickets fell at regular intervals as Stirling looked to increase the run rate and they were eventually all out for 162. Black finished with figures of 4-16 off 7 overs and was ably supported by Ashraf, Oliver and Booth who each picked up 2 wickets.

Clackmannan knew that it should be a gettable score provided they didn’t lose early wickets on a really flat wicket that offered little to the bowlers. Unfortunately we didn’t get off to the best of starts as the young openers, Dan Smith and Graham Oliver, were out quickly. This brought the African pair of Keith Hefer and Craig Black to the crease. Hefer started demolishing the opposition attack as he was celebrating his birthday that evening and was in a rush to leave and help set things up. After a quick fire 32 he was caught at deep midwicket, missing out on a potential 50 had he not been in such a hurry. Black soon found his rhythm and started picking the bowlers apart and he eventually got his 50 with a huge six back over the bowlers head. Sultan (13) and Paul Hooper (11) offered brief partnerships with Black as Clackmannan chased down the total, Ashraf finally finished proceedings off with a boundary through covers, giving Clackmannan a 3 wicket victory.