Round 2 of the Wicketz Scotland indoor tournament saw us pitted against a strong Grange A side.

Livingston were not at full strength, however the omens were good when Bobby won the toss (that is worth repeating as it hasn't happened since the early part of the summer season).  Bobby chose to field and in his first over for the club Travis Chandler clean bowled their opening bat with only a couple of runs on the scoreboard.

From there it was a fairly attritional game, the Livingston fielding was steady, Imtiaz nearly pulling off a diving return catch off his own bowling in the latter part of the Grange innings and Mark Gray throwing himself around behind the stumps.  The bowling was shared between Travis, Imtiaz, Jack Jarvis, Qasim and Bobby all of whom did a good job although probably gave away a few too many wides.  That said no boundaries were conceded in the whole innings meaning that a good length was bowled throughout.

Grange didn't lose another wicket and completed their 10 overs with a score of 70-1

In reply Livingston also lost an early wicket with Mark Gray being caught off the side wall with the ball nestling inbetween the fielders legs.  That brought young Jack Jarvis to the crease to partner Bobby.  It took both of them a little while to settle into their rythmn and as a result they were always up against it with the run rate.  The 2 had taken the score onto 32-1 after 6 overs so 10 an over was required from the last 4.

Both Bobby and Jack went onto 25 when they had to retire with an over remaining.  This brought Travis & Imtiaz to the crease with 5 balls remaining and 19 runs required for victory (any runs off the last ball are doubled).  Travis hit their opening bowler for 6 off his first ball (the only boundary of the whole match), then was involved in a controversial run out.  Travis hit and ran, Imtiaz stayed firmly in his crease the fielding side hit the stumps appealing for the run out of Travis who hadn't made his ground at which point Imtiaz set off the fielding side then threw to the keeper who proceeded to break the stumps before Imtiaz had made his ground. The correct decision should have been that Imtiaz was run out and Travis remained in at the non strikers end with 2 balls remaining, instead Travis was given out and Imtiaz stayed on strike.   I think they were fearful of his hitting if he got on strike on the last ball!!!

As it turned out we had run out of time scoring 62-2 and losing by 8 runs.

It was a good performance from a scratch side and particularly pleasing to see Jack Jarvis flourishing but everyone contributed to what was a competitive match.

For those wanting to keep up to date with the league it can be tracked via www.wicketzscotland.co.uk