A muggy, overcast day greeted the Clackmannan Cougars as they travelled to the capital’s Roseburn Park to try and maintain their charge for promotion against Murrayfield DAFS.

Craig Black once again called correctly at the toss and had no hesitation in asking the home side to bat first on a pitch that looked bowler-friendly.

Rizwan Ashraf opened and immediately hit his metronomic rhythm and the Murrayfield openers swished at thin air time and time again as they were defeated by the seam movement. With Keith Hefer running a tight ship at the other end Murrayfield’s innings began at a funereal rate, with just 12 runs from the first 8 overs.

Black took the ball in the tenth over and after conceding an early boundary he dismissed the opener Banks with a short ball, Taylor taking a regulation chance off the outside edge.

Tariq Mehboob took the ball at the other end after Ashraf’s opening spell of four maidens in five overs and he struck immediately as Rangaswamy chopped an big in swinger onto his off stump.

The change bowlers strung together the maidens and the pressure told on Scott as he edged Black behind to give Taylor his second catch. Two overs later the skipper took his third scalp of the day as he produced the perfect looping slower ball. Baikie was through the shot with the ball barely half way down the wicket and the ball clattered into his timbers. This left the home side 40/4 in the 19th over.

Lacey and D’Souza battled hard to repair the damage but the Murrayfield captain couldn’t resist having a hook at another brutal Black bumper and he toe ended high into the slips region. The familiar Taylor cry once again filled the Sunday strollers and their pets with terror but he took the catch comfortably to remove the fifth wicket.

Shiels joined D’Souza at the crease and they bedded in for the long haul as the run rate remained pedestrian at 2.5 per over, with Oliver racing through some economical overs of spin and Black, taking a particular liking to the conditions,  sending down his ten overs in one spell.

Oliver’s pressure finally paid dividends in his eighth over when D’Souza played and missed, slid marginally out of his ground and Taylor punished him with a sharp stumping.  The pair repeated the trick in the spinner’s next over as Shiels advanced down the pitch, yorked himself, and Taylor once again showed no mercy.

At 83/7 after 36 overs Murrayfield desperately needed some impetus and Settu was intent on providing it, smashing his second ball from Oliver over cow corner for six towards the North stand of the rugby ground. However Mehboob soon re-asserted Clackmannan’s control as Raza looped a simple catch to Hefer in the covers.

One over later Settu tried to repeat his six from Oliver’s previous over but he couldn’t get it over Black at mid-off and Murrayfield were 95/9.

With Clackmannan in a comfortable position, the silver-tongued Hefer sweet talked his captain into allowing him to bowl some leg spinners but the absence of Watkins behind the stumps seemed to unnerve the South African and after three wides and amid much sniggering the experiment was abandoned.

The tenth wicket partnership hung on doggedly as the Clackmannan fielders basked in the newly arrived sunshine. Eventually Mehta slashed a short ball from Hefer to Graham Oliver at point to wrap up the innings for 119.

With the pitch now bathed in sunshine it seemed sure to flatten out and so it proved as the Clackmannan openers Graham Oliver and Noor Jhangir happily played through the line of the ball and got the reply off to a speedy start.

Boundaries disappeared regularly through mid-on and over the bowler’s head and the sting was soon drawn from the Murrayfield bowling.

In the eighth over Jhangir perished as he attempted to launch one into the stadium and Clackmannan were 32/1.

Black joined Oliver at the wicket and the pair stepped on the gas even harder, murdering anything short of a length and continuing to hit through the line of anything full.

After a crushing straight six over the bowler’s head Oliver looked set for a classy 50 but he was run out at the non-striker’s end as the bowler Baikie got a finger on Black’s straight drive and the opening batsman’s desperate throw of the bat was not enough to save him.

With the score on 99, Hutchinson came to the crease and steadfastly refused to score any runs with the skipper closing in on his fifty. As the runs required went into single figures it became clear that Black was planning something as he defended a gentle full toss to mid-off. The next ball he switched stance and clubbed a left handed pitching wedge over the backpedalling mid-off and then hit the winning runs with a reverse sweep for four to bring up his fifty.

This was a convincing performance from first to last and leaves Clackmannan within touching distance of back-to-back promotions. Black takes home the much coveted man-of-the-match/dick-of -the-day double. For 4/30 with the ball, 52 not out with the bat, allowing his new ball bowler to send down leg-spin on a quickie’s wicket and running out his opening batsman with a carelessly well-timed straight drive.