Livingston 1st XI started their campaign at home under new captain Jazim Sohail with a victory against a weakened Largo. Largo having beaten us both home and away last season. Jazim won the toss and elected to bowl opening the attack with youngster Sadhil Jindal (0-11) and Naveen Subhanaboina (3-13). Naveen made the early breakthrough in his first over with Shrey Awasthi taking a straight forward catch at square leg. Largo's top order made slow progress but retained wickets losing their 3rd in the 20th over. Adarsh Brar (1-19) having taken the second and Naveen the 3rd removing Largo's top scorer B Mowat (33). From there on wickets fell at fairly regular intervals with Alan Mcdonald (1-18) and man of the match Sohaib Asghar (2-28). In between time Naveen got a great run out with a direct throw to remove I Brown (11) who was beginning to look dangerous. The innings finished with a run out with Sohaib completing the run out from Shrey's throw. Largo's 40 overs resulting in a score of 121-9.

The Livingston performance had been fairly efficient with good bowling although a few too many extras (2nd top score) conceded including 19 wides. Particular mention must go to Simon Lancaster for his performance behind the stumps. The fielding had some bright moments with the 2 run outs and 3 good catches, however there were still definitely opportunities to improve. One of the moments of the match was a drop, which would have been a fantastic caught & bowled if Sohaib had managed to hang onto a bullet of a shot which came back at him.

In response the Livingston innings got off to a difficult start with Bobby, Andrew Wilcock and Simon being back in the pavilion with only 14 on the board. Sohaib (59*) looked in great touch from the outset and was joined by Jazim (29). The pair stabilised the performance and kept the score ticking over. Jazim was caught on the boundary with the score on 66 and the outcome of the match was still in the balance. Connor Clark (20) joined Sohaib and batted very sensibly taking us to within one shot of victory with a towering 6 before he was bowled trying to repeat the shot. The next ball Adarsh (2*) got the runs to get us over the line with more than 9 overs left.

It was a good start to the season. Next week we take on Edinburgh South who also won yesterday v St Boswells, both sides having been relegated from Division 1 last year. The fixture is to be played at home.