Scorecard

Match Report In weather more remeniscent of mid autumn than mid summer the Clackmannan County first team travelled to Edinburgh to play Holy Cross. Mahendra Patel picked up the reigns of captancy for the day and lost the toss. Holly Cross asked the Clackmannanshire side to bat and Gordon Oliver and Zahid Hussain braved the cold, wet and wind to open the innings. The two batsmen got off to a good start, averaging five runs an over off the first four overs, however on the third ball of the fifth over Hussain was run out for 7. Not the best way to loose a first wicket, especially so early in the innings. Twenty for one, a far cry from last weeks 54 for the first wicket. Mark Cunningham, promoted up the order from last week, joined Oliver and these two pushed the score along, hitting the boundary on a regular basis until Oliver misjudged a ball from Preece and was caught for 32. The total by this time, had moved on to 79 with only 17 overs gone and Cunningham looking set for a useful innings. Andrew Puglia helped take the score to 99 before Cunningham was decieved by a ball from Biswas and was bowled, one run short of his 50. He was soon followed by Puglia, again to the hand of Baswas, caught for eleven. Alan Oliver came and went for one run, charging down the wicket to medium pacer Biswas, only to be bowled. 106 for 4 in the 26th over. Chris Harney, batting number six, picked up from where he left off last week and hit the boundary three times in his total of 13 before being caught off Ellis. Captain Patel was adjudged LBW to Ellis for nought and the scoreline was beginning to look as miserable as the weather. 124 for 7 off 34 overs. James Couper(4), newly returned from the heat of Florida and Jeff Thomas(3) could not provide the necessary lift to jet the Clackmannan innings back on to a higher plane. By the time the forty first over was bowled, the Clackmannan innings was complete. The final wicket, David Henderson(1) falling to fellow spinner, Ellis, who bowled 5.3 overs and collected three wickets for three runs. Matthew Booth improved his average, remaining not out on four. The final total, 134 all out for Clackmannan, again belied the batting ability in the side and made the second half of the game more of a trial than might have been the case. Holy Cross opened with K Fraser and D Russell to a changed Clackmannan opening attack of Mark Cunningham and Matthew Booth. Fraser started of with a four off Cunningham's first ball, an ominous sign of what was to come. The Holly Cross innings mirrored their oponents innings in the fall of the first wicket, Booth striking in his second over to return Russell to the pavilion for 3, caught behind by Jeff Thomas with the total on 24. Russell's replacement, Ellis was outfoxed by Booth in Booth's fourth over, caught, again by Thomas, for 4. Smith joined Fraser, who seemed to specialise in boundary hitting, with the score on 40. By the time this partnership was broken, Smith bowled by Hussain for 11, the score had risen to an astonishing 117 in 27 overs. Bonefield took over the role of supporting act to Fraser's dominant hitting and was still at the crease when Fraser was eventually removed by Hussain, caught by Andrew Puglia for a matchwinning 96. Frasers final tally included thirteen fours and one six. Hussain, bowling well, removed Quinn from centre stage two balls later for a duck, but the Clackmannan side had by this time too much to do and not enough runs to do it with. Holy Cross overtook the Clackmannan total with a final two runs, scoring their 136 for 5 wickets in 32.4 overs. Bowling honours for Clackmannan, split between David Henderson for his usual economic 28 runs from 11 overs and the young quicks Booth and Hussain. Matthew Booth for his penetration in the first four overs to take two wickets and the spikeless Zahid Hussain who bowled three overs, taking 3 wickets for 7 runs. At last Zahid getting some reward for his bowling efforts this season. Much to be taken from the game again, the bowling and fielding were much improved from earlier in the season but the bottom line is still a defeat and the team left scraping up a few points when the maximum 25 should have been the result. Next week the first team is at home to Penicuik 2, the game starting at 1pm.