Clackmannan County Cricket Club

By Greig Taylor

Clackmannan, after a good performance against West Lothian last week made the short trip to Fife to play Dalgety Bay in the penultimate game of the first half of the season. With Clackmannan sitting top of the table, the county side were looking to continue in their fine fettle of form with another victory against a struggling Bay side.
After losing the toss again!, Clackmannan were asked to bat on an “interesting” artificial wicket. It became suddenly apparent that the pitch wasn’t going to play nice and batting would be tricky. Scott Malcolmson & Rik Odendaal took to the pitch and suddenly found the scoring hard. It wasn’t until Odendaal top-edged a full toss for 6 that the runs started to flow and shortly after that, his cameo innings came to an end as he was bowled after dragging on for 11. Malcolmson was next to go after being superbly caught and bowled by Martin for 7. Neil Ramsay and Noor Jhangir were both new to the crease and the Fife side looked to put the pressure on. Jhangir was soon bowled going for a swipe across the line for 4 and Taylor departed 3 balls later for a duck. Ramsay and Dave Watkins were looking to steady the ship but Ramsay soon went for one shot too many and was caught at cover for 18. Sitting precariously on 54 for 5, a partnership was needed and the refreshed Nick Bryant-Nicholls & Watkins duly provided one with a cracking partnership which took Clackmannan up to the hundred mark. However, both batsmen fell within the space of 2 overs and with only 15 overs to go, Clackmannan needed to score at least another 30 runs to ensure they had a defendable score. Alison Ramsay came and went for a single bringing Graham Fraser (17) and Kash Ali together. This partnership proved to be crucial as they took the score above 150. The innings finished with Ali being caught behind for a well compiled 27 with the score far beyond what was expected at one stage, ending on 163 all out.
After fine teas, Clackmannan took the field and needed a good tight spell from the opening bowlers and once again, the County players provided the goods with only 22 runs off the first 10 overs, with Bielski being caught by Kash Ali off the bowling of Alison “dangermouse” Ramsay. The luckless Will Kay was taken off and replaced by Neil Ramsay, who had now recovered from his mysterious illness that prevented him from taking the new cherry. Noor Jhangir had now replaced Alison Ramsay from the Vauxhall end. After a dodgy sledge by Neil Ramsay to Clackmannan keeper Greig Taylor about his frame mimicking a roller as he dived and rolled to stop a shooter, he eventually focused on his bowling and removed the two dangerous batsmen, Sharma and Forbes, this turned out to be the pivotal point in the game. After being hit for a couple of boundaries, kash Ali replaced Jhangir and started inauspiciously, with two rank rotten balls, but he then bowled a beautiful spell of spin, confusing the batsmen with flight, spin, guile and any other adjective you can muster to describe what a cracking spell he had. He returned with figures of 4-10 off 7 overs: having two batsman caught well in the deep by Graham Fraser and Ali Ramsay; one LBW; one stumped by keeper Taylor. Nick Bryant-Nicholls, with his consistent bowling, eventually got his just reward with keeper Taylor taking his first catch of the season. In the end, Dalgety Bay had admitted defeat and just decided to bat out the overs instead of chasing the target which in the end proved too much. The game was set up by the middle and lower order and was finished off by the tight bowling of the openers and the excellent effort by Ali, which earned him the title of “Man of the Match” saw Clackmannan win the game in comfortable fashion.
Clackmannan finish off the first half of the season next week with a home game against Fauldhouse 2nd XI.

Match Report
Clackmannan County 2nd XI v Dalgety Bay
Click here to view scorecard
Date 20/6/2009	Venue Dalgety Bay	Result Win	Weather Cloudy
By Greig Taylor Clackmannan, after a good performance against West Lothian last week made the short trip to Fife to play Dalgety Bay in the penultimate game of the first half of the season. With Clackmannan sitting top of the table, the county side were looking to continue in their fine fettle of form with another victory against a struggling Bay side. After losing the toss again!, Clackmannan were asked to bat on an “interesting” artificial wicket. It became suddenly apparent that the pitch wasn’t going to play nice and batting would be tricky. Scott Malcolmson & Rik Odendaal took to the pitch and suddenly found the scoring hard. It wasn’t until Odendaal top-edged a full toss for 6 that the runs started to flow and shortly after that, his cameo innings came to an end as he was bowled after dragging on for 11. Malcolmson was next to go after being superbly caught and bowled by Martin for 7. Neil Ramsay and Noor Jhangir were both new to the crease and the Fife side looked to put the pressure on. Jhangir was soon bowled going for a swipe across the line for 4 and Taylor departed 3 balls later for a duck. Ramsay and Dave Watkins were looking to steady the ship but Ramsay soon went for one shot too many and was caught at cover for 18. Sitting precariously on 54 for 5, a partnership was needed and the refreshed Nick Bryant-Nicholls & Watkins duly provided one with a cracking partnership which took Clackmannan up to the hundred mark. However, both batsmen fell within the space of 2 overs and with only 15 overs to go, Clackmannan needed to score at least another 30 runs to ensure they had a defendable score. Alison Ramsay came and went for a single bringing Graham Fraser (17) and Kash Ali together. This partnership proved to be crucial as they took the score above 150. The innings finished with Ali being caught behind for a well compiled 27 with the score far beyond what was expected at one stage, ending on 163 all out. After fine teas, Clackmannan took the field and needed a good tight spell from the opening bowlers and once again, the County players provided the goods with only 22 runs off the first 10 overs, with Bielski being caught by Kash Ali off the bowling of Alison “dangermouse” Ramsay. The luckless Will Kay was taken off and replaced by Neil Ramsay, who had now recovered from his mysterious illness that prevented him from taking the new cherry. Noor Jhangir had now replaced Alison Ramsay from the Vauxhall end. After a dodgy sledge by Neil Ramsay to Clackmannan keeper Greig Taylor about his frame mimicking a roller as he dived and rolled to stop a shooter, he eventually focused on his bowling and removed the two dangerous batsmen, Sharma and Forbes, this turned out to be the pivotal point in the game. After being hit for a couple of boundaries, kash Ali replaced Jhangir and started inauspiciously, with two rank rotten balls, but he then bowled a beautiful spell of spin, confusing the batsmen with flight, spin, guile and any other adjective you can muster to describe what a cracking spell he had. He returned with figures of 4-10 off 7 overs: having two batsman caught well in the deep by Graham Fraser and Ali Ramsay; one LBW; one stumped by keeper Taylor. Nick Bryant-Nicholls, with his consistent bowling, eventually got his just reward with keeper Taylor taking his first catch of the season. In the end, Dalgety Bay had admitted defeat and just decided to bat out the overs instead of chasing the target which in the end proved too much. The game was set up by the middle and lower order and was finished off by the tight bowling of the openers and the excellent effort by Ali, which earned him the title of “Man of the Match” saw Clackmannan win the game in comfortable fashion. Clackmannan finish off the first half of the season next week with a home game against Fauldhouse 2nd XI.