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Written by Faisal Anwar
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1's win 1st league game in a nail biting finish with Leith at the ‘Rigg
Livingston's 1XI finally recorded a much needed and well deserved win against Leith FAB scoring 269 in 50 overs with Leith all out for 251 from 48.1 overs.
Leith lost the toss and temporary skipper Naveed, in only his second game decided to bat first on a very warm and sunny day at the ‘Rigg, with the pitch still looking like a featherbed.
This season the top order have struggled to get runs and so it was again but this time not helped by two silly run outs putting early pressure on Livingston. Good contributions from Skipper Naveed and Mudders saw Livi start to wrest the initiative back from Leith, but at 76 for 6 off 25 overs Livi were looking another defeat.
However thanks primarily to the aggressive hitting of Salman, supported by the bruised and battered Spin King who ended up with Mudders running for him, and with Leith turning to their slow bowlers Livi fought back. By the time the Spin King was out for a hard earned 29 he and Salman had put on over 100 runs in a partnership to take the score to 187 for 7 off 40 overs. But Livi were not done there as Salman bludgeoned his way to a superb 100 (including some very long sixes), ably supported first by some very good hitting by Senthil, who eventually scored 30 odd and then good hitting from Jum. Livi posted their highest score of the season at 269 off their 50 overs, which was a fantastic turnaround.
269 should have been more than enough runs, but Livi were missing a key bowler in Roddy and also Silky this week, and the opening Livi bowlers struggled with line and length early on as the Leith batsman set off at a fair old pace, scoring 70 odd after only 10 overs. Good bowling from Skipper Naveed and VC Jum slowed the run rate down and bought Livi back into the game. Then spin twins, Kirky and the Spin King came on and showed what good slow bowling could do and wickets began to fall and runs began to dry up. But the Leith batsmen hung in there and kept scoring runs, setting up a tense finish. Leith required 19 off 12 balls but only had one wicket , with Jum to take the last over and Skipper Naveed had a tough decision to make of who to turn to. After much discussion with the senior players the Skipper turned to the Spin King in a bold move, which paid off two balls later as the Spin King clean bowled the last Leith batsman to give Livi their first win of the season.
The old adage catches win matches once again proved right as no doubt part of the reason for the win was that Livi held most of the catches that came their way with special mentions for Jazim taking three excellent catches, and a good catch also taken by Neil Jukes.
Livi won the game the hard way and there is clearly some work needed to be done by both batsmen and bowlers, but it was a great team performance with Salman the star with the bat but with good support at the end, and good performances with the ball and in the field.
The 1’s must now build on these performances with two good performances in a row now having narrowly lost to Grange 2’s last weekend, if we are to continue participation in Division 2 next season, which on current form is still firmly within our grasps. COME ON THE TEAM FROM THE SCHEME!
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