By David Watkins

On a bright but mild afternoon at the Arns, Edinburgh won the toss and put Clackmannan 2’s into bat on the artificial strip, necessary due to the high amount of rain that had fallen in midweek.
Greig Taylor was promoted to open with Richard Passe and the pair safely negotiated the opening overs sent down by Edinburgh’s accurate new ball duo and began to accelerate the scoring rate against the change bowler. Taylor lead the way with some aggressively run singles and he was unforgiving on anything pitched too short.
Taylor brought up his fifty and was well on the way to a hundred but, in the 31st over and nine batsmen still waiting, he chanced his arm and was caught at mid-wicket for 82, a fine knock that ended his frustrating recent run with the bat. Neil Ramsay at number three smashed two sumptuous boundaries before he chopped a short ball on to this stumps for 8.
Passe, untroubled throughout the 139-run opening stand, was joined by Auranzeb Alamgir promoted to number four and a wild roar of approval greeted his opening defensive prod, bringing a bashful wave and smile from ‘Big Boom’ that brought to mind Princess Diana in her early twenties. He is perfecting the short-arm pull shot and he had already dispatched one such shot to the boundary before Akhtar got one through his defences for eight.
David Watkins came in next and struggled to time the ball and it was a greater relief to the batting side when he ballooned one to cover for 5.
Rik Odendal followed and he soon began connecting with the ball more sweetly, including one booming back foot drive over cover for four. However he was trapped in-front by a yorker from Azad and departed for 19.
Fifteen year old debutant keeper Andrew Lamb was the next to join Passe and he made a single before being run out of the final ball of the innings. Passe carried his bat for an unbeaten and boundary-less 69. Clackmannan finished on 219/6.
With a depleted bowling attack it was always going to be difficult to keep the Edinburgh batsmen in check but Clackmannan made the perfect start as Alamgir, taking the new ball, induced a false shot from the dangerous Anyum and he popped the ball up to Archibald at square leg.
Scott Malcolmson began the innings with the deep fielders out and it became obvious why as Ali and Azad went on a hitting spree, pulling anything short and driving anything full. While they played some glorious strokes, many others went in the air and chances were missed and balls fell into gaps as the second-wicket pair put their side comfortably on course for victory.
Rich Passe was brought into the attack to try and bring some control for the captain and he struck in his first over as Ali skied a catch to Ramsay at cover to leave Edinburgh on 89/2.
What looked like the key moment came with the score on 114, as Azad pushed one to mid-wicket and he was run out by Ross Archibald with a superb pick-up, spin and throw. In the same over Passe had new batsman Farooq bowled off his pads for a duck and in the following over Nick Bryant-Nichols sneaked one through the defences of Razzaq, leaving Edinburgh wobbling on 115/5.
However the visitors rallied again with their sixth wicket partnership as Khan and Iftikhar battled their way towards 200. The rate had slowed dramatically since the start but it was still clear that Clackmannan would have to bowl the visitors out in order to win.
Ramsay was brought back as Clackmannan’s desperation grew and he really opened the taps, bowling with blistering pace. He got his reward when a fast Yorker crashed into Iftikhar’s stumps to leave the visitors on 201/7, still 19 short.
With the partnership broken Clackmannan smelt blood. Alamgir returned and bowled Akhtar for 2 and then Watkins, brought on at the other end, got Afzal to sky a catch to Passe at gully for 4.
Alamgir yorked Aziz for a duck and the visitors, all of a sudden, were 215/9 and the game was on a knife-edge.
But it was to go the visitors’ way as with the score on 218, Alamgir missed the number 11 Mohammed’s leg stump by an inch and the ball slipped away towards the railway line for four byes which secured Edinburgh’s victory ending Clackmannan’s mammoth run of home victories.