Saturday saw us visit local rivals West Lothian on a very cold and grey day.  It was agreed at the toss to reduce the match to 40 overs on the basis that the forecast was not good later in the day.

Bobby lost the toss and Livingston were put into bat.  The outfield was quite long so nothing was going to easily cross the boundary and throughout the match there were not many boundaries.  Bobby and Fahad got off to a slow but untroubled start until Bobby (12) was caught at point.  Fahad and Ruan (42) further took things on and gradually built up the run rate.  With about 16 overs to go the partnership was broken with the score just short of 100.  Hamad joined his brother and the run rate continued to build.  The two were in complete control and it was a surprise when Hamad (47) was run out trying a sneaky single to the keeper.

The story then became whether Fahad could make his century supported by Kash who constantly managed to get Fahad on strike.  In the final over Fahad made his century finishing on 107 not out and Livingston reached 223-3 in their 40 overs.

In reply West Lothian never really made much headway, with only 2 players making double figures.  Newman top scored with 18 and a few lusty blows but plenty of playing and missing in particular to Naveen (2-16).  Bilal opened with Naveen in his debut for the club and took a little while to settle into a rythmn but showed some promising signs.  Kash replaced Bilal in the 10th over and started a really impressive spell (3-9) in his 8 overs including 5 maidens.

This was further supported by Alan McDonald (2-4) with his first wickets for the club and a wicket a piece for Hamad and Jim.  Whilst most of the wickets were bowled there was one outstanding moment in the field when Mukhtar pulled off a superb catch in the gully off Kash.

The match finished with a run out with man of the match Fahad bowling and Livingston winning by 147 runs.

Next week will see us at home against unbeaten Falkland.