Scorecard

Match Report The Clackmannan County first team began this game knowing the importance of a favourable result. The weather was cloudy, again, but the rain, which had held off all morning, began just before the game was due to start. The game started, fifteen minutes late due to the weather. Gordon Oliver having won the toss, elected to field. Clackmannan returned to the early season bowling partnership of Matthew Booth and Zahid Hussain to lead the attack. Stewarts Melville Royal High sent in Steven Parker and Stuart Foupister to open their innings. The SMRH pair began carefully and by the 8th over had amassed 15 runs before Foupister was caught by wicketkeeper Jeff Thomas off Hussain for 4. A double bowling change after the tenth over, with the score on 24, saw Chris Harney and Mark Cunningham enter the fray. The two change bowlers succeeded in keeping the runs down and in the fifteenth over Cunningham had Malcolm MacColl caught by Oliver for 5 with the score on 35. Parker rode his luck surviving a couple of close decisions until he was eventually caught, again, by Oliver off Henderson for 48 with the score on 69. SMRH continued to bat sensibly but were finding it difficult to get the spin attack of David Henderson and Graham Bayes away. Steven Kerr(13) was next to go caught behind by Thomas off Henderson. This success was followed some eight runs later by Scott Anderson LBW to Henderson for 1. While Bayes tied down one end Henderson weaved his magic at the other end and took the wickets of David Kerr(17), caught and bowled and Kevin Azam(0) caught Oliver. The return to the attack of Cunningham created some success for Clackmannan. In Marks first over Charlie Butcher, who had held the SMRH innings together, succumbed to yet another catch by Oliver for a useful 31 runs having batted for 63 minutes. The SMRH innings closed on 133 for 9 with Henderson taking a creditable 5 for 30 from 15 overs. The Clackmannan side opened their innings with Gordon Oliver and Zahid Hussain chasing an obtainable target, considering the on paper ability of the batting line up. SMRH were without their normal opening bowling attack however James Crispin and Craig Goold bowled tightly and kept the Clackmannan opening partnership to 17. In the thirteenth over, Goold was replaced by Charlie Butcher who continued to keep the opening batsmen under pressure. The Clackmannan pair continued to bat cautiously picking up singles where they could, slowly putting together a solid base for the innings. It was not until Malcolm MacColl enticed Hussain down the wicket for wicketkeeper Peter Hedden to remove both the bails and the batsman from the wicket that the partnership was broken. Hussan had scored a solid 20 and the Clackmannan score stood on a health 54 albeit in the 25th over. Nine wickets to fall with 25 overs to score 80 runs, the statistics favoured Clackmannan. Experience however predicted the reality, by over 29 Clackmannan were 64 for 4 and the usual Clackmannan collapse was in full swing. Gordon Oliver had to watch all his good work go to waste before being caught by Azam, bowled by Butcher for 31. Mark Cunningham and Andrew Puglia came together and began to show an ability to build an innings based on solid technique and the spectre of all out collapse receded. When Cunningham was eventually caught by Kerr for 22 off Azam the score was 94, with 14 overs remaining. The side was left to make the 40 runs required with 5 wickets in hand. By the 38th over the score was 103 but Owais Aamir(2), Jeff Thomas(4) and Andrew Puglia(6) were all back in the hutch. The Clackmannan innings was yet again in trouble. Chris Harney introduced some backbone into a team batting display which had so far been more hara-kiri than hardbitten. Supported by Matthew Booth(4) and David Henderson, Harney nursed the total towards the target of 134. However, it was not to be, with the score on 125 in the 48th over the final pair attempted a suicidal run which left Henderson short by some yards and the team short by 9 runs. Harney batted well for his undefeated 15, Henderson defended well for his 2 but yet again Clackmannan had snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. Next Saturdays game is against Holy Cross in Edinburgh, with the team needing to pick up more than the seven points gained from this outing.