Scorecard

Match Report Clackmannan Counties first eleven game against Murrayfield DAFS at the Arns was played on the artificial surface after yet another spell of rain made the prospect of play on a grass wicket impossible. The outfield was soft and slow but the game commenced under cloudy skies with a forecast for showers throughout the day. Clackmannan County batted first. Opening batsmen Tom King, playing his first game of the season and Tipu Sultan started steadily against an accurate Murrayfield attack. The first wicket fell with the score on 30, Sultan having made 22 was caught by Baikie off the bowling of Sorrel, his total including two sixes over long on. James Couper faced one ball which proved to be too good for the youngster and he returned to the pavilion assured of at least one golden award at the end of season presentations. Ash Rasul, after surviving a concerted appeal for caught behind, which left a bruise the size of an orange on his arm, stayed for nine minutes before he also left with the prospect of an end of season duck award. Two top order batsmen dismissed for no runs and Clackmannan in trouble at 38 for 3 wickets. Gordon Oliver joined King with 11 overs on the board and a mountain to climb. The Murrayfield bowlers were giving nothing away and the Clackmannan pair would have to work hard for every run. King eventually succumbed to a catch by Rogers off Lawrence after a hard won 23. Oliver, struggling to find his touch, battled on. His team mates, who, while finding it difficult to score many runs, did their best to stay at the crease to support Olivers efforts. The weather which had looked promising for a while, for a while, both sunny and fairly warm, took a turn for the worse and the heavens opened. Play was stopped and tea taken with Clackmannan on 111 for 8 wickets and Oliver 7 short of his fifty with five overs of the innings remaining. When play resumed conditions on the field had changed, the outfield was much slower and the ball a bit more difficult to handle. The lower order batsmen stayed with Oliver to see him to his fifty and to allow the side to make the 125 run score required for two batting points before the innings finished on 1333 all out in 48.3 overs. Oliver batted 31 overs for his 54 runs and played himself into form in an innings which at least gave the Clackmannan side a chance. Another burst of heavy rain caused the covers to be used on the run-ups again during the change of innings. By this time the weather had become much colder and the outfield was sodden. Played in England the game would probably have been abandoned, in Scotland the game goes on, otherwise very few games here would be played to a conclusion. The effect of the wet pitch and outfield was immediately obvious, the Murrayfield openers Duncan Peake and Andy Knight started well but their scoring shots were being slowed considerably by the wet outfield. The young Clackmannan opening bowlers, Zahid Hussain and Matthew Booth, were finding it difficult to hold on to the bar of soap which was the ball and were both replaced by the fifth over, with the score on 25 for no wickets. The captain tried Tipo Sultan and Muktar Ahmed to break the opening partnership but it was not until he, himself bowled that the breakthrough was made. With his first ball he had Peake caught by Hussain for 26 runs, by this time Murrayfield had scored 44 with ten overs gone. Ian Shields came to the crease and in partnership with Knight put on another 36 runs before he was bowled by Rasul for 29. By this time the weather was dismal, but, a shaft of sunlight in the form of the batting of Sri Lankan Jayakanth Siva brightened up the day for the cricket lovers in the crowd. Siva made a quickfire 35 including two fours and two sixes and showed, both how to play spin and the fine art of steering the ball between the fielders. However his partnership with Knight(32) put the final nail in the coffin of Clackmannan's slim chance of success. Murrayfield won comprehensively, 135 for 2 in 25.1 overs, with Siva scoring a four to overtake the Clackmannan total. The experience of the Murrayfield team showed especially the accuracy of their bowling, in particular Norman Allan, who bowled 14.2 overs for 23 runs. For Clackmannan, the batting of Gordon Oliver showed our young players the way forward. The weather conditions did affect the Clackmannan sides bowling, but, that's life in Scottish cricket, chalk it up to experience.