A glorious day and Livingston entered the game v Largo full of confidence. Jazim Sohail and Sohaib Asghar returned for their first games of the season and Ahmed Ali was making his debut in a league match for the club.
Bobby won the toss and elected to bat even allowing for the wicket being a bit on the soft side and this probably proved to be a crucial decision as the wicket dried out and got firmer as the match progressed. That said a couple of wickets were gifted and the side generally didn't apply itself with the bat.
The first wicket to fall was Fahad, a straight one going between bat and pad in the third over with the score on 8. Bobby and Ruan then took things on comfortably until the 7th over when Ruan called for a short single to cover, however Bobby wasn't able to make his ground. There proceeded a clatter of wickets, Soby getting a good one to be third down with the score on 21. Ruan had battled hard to try and get used to the slow wicket eventually holing out to mid off not getting hold of his drive. Jazim had nearly run himself out earlier stumbling half way down the wicket but was beginning to look more comfortable when he and Hamad took a quick one only for Jazim not to make his ground. Hamad soon followed being stumped and all of a sudden the top 6 had all gone and the score was 34-6 after only 16 overs.
Ahmed decided to play his natural game and take the attack on, he hit 3 boundaries before managing to find the tallest player at cover trying to go over the top. He had reached 15 however the score was now 48-7. Simon had battled hard but soon followed with the score 53-8. This brought together Jim & Alan, Jim followed Ahmed's lead taking the aggressive route whilst Alan held down the other end. Jim went on to score 27 off 26 balls however he and Alan fell in quick succession, Alan first getting one that kept low and finally Jim losing his balance and being stumped, before he was though Zeeshan came in and hit a lovely 6. Livingston had reached 89 all out after 31.1 overs and 1 run short of a batting bonus point.
Livingston went into the second half knowing they were on the back foot but firmly believing they had the chance to pull off an unlikely victory. Things got off to a good start, Hamad taking a tumbling catch at silly mid on off Ahmed (1-13) in the 4th over. Then in the 10th over there was a double strike, firstly Ruan hitting the stumps direct to run out their number 3 and then Hamad (1-12) getting their opener LBW and the score was 16-3. At this stage Largo decided to become a little more aggressive not their captain hitting a lovely 4 before top edging an expansive shot into the leg side for Fahad to take the first of his 2 catches. The score was now 29-4.
N Getti was now joined by A Anderson at the crease and the 2 put together the partnership that was to decide the outcome of the match. Getti being the aggressor and Anderson holding up the other end. Jim came on to bowl conceding 1 run in his first over and then reeling off 5 maidens on the trot. Livi had our chances 2 fine edges dropped behind while Simon was standing up the type that you hope are going to stick, however probably the key drop came when Ruan was brought on and N Getti slashed one high to cover.
Alan came back for a second spell and broke the partnership having Getti caught by Fahad for 44 and then F Khan soon followed with Jazim taking a catch at long on. That was our last success with Largo reaching their total in the 39th over.
It was a good effort in the field from Livingston but our batting let us down. Our record is now 3 wins and 1 loss and we sit 3rd in the division where no one now has an unbeaten record as Morton were beaten yesterday also. Next week we travel to Westquarter who got their first win of the season yesterday.
  Livingston | 1st XI | v |   | Largo | Date: | 2015-05-23 |
Type of Match | League Division 2 | at | Turpie & Co Sports Ground |
Livingston | 89 all out (31.1 overs) | Largo | 93 for 6 (38.2 overs) |
Result: | Livingston lost by 4 wkts |
    | Batsman | How Out | Bowler | Runs | 4s | 6s | 1 | R Bowering | run out |   | 7 |   |   | 2 | F Ahmed | bowled | F Khan | 3 |   |   | 3 | R Erasmus | ct H Gillin | B Bentley | 10 |   |   | 4 | S Asghar | bowled | F Khan | 2 |   |   | 5 | J Sohail | run out |   | 7 |   |   | 6 | H Ahmed | st A Warrender | B Bentley | 1 |   |   | 7 | AH Ali | ct D Coates | A Anderson | 15 |   |   | 8 | S Lancaster | bowled | A Anderson | 1 |   |   | 9 | J Wilson | st A Warrender | B Bentley | 27 |   |   | 10 | A McDonald | bowled | B Bentley | 7 |   |   | 11 | Z Sharif | not out |   | 6 |   |   |   |   |   | Extras | 3 |   |   | Total |   |   | 89 all out |
    | Bowler | Overs | Mdns | Runs | Wkts | Wds | NBs | Avg | Econ |   | 1 | F Khan | 9.0 | 1 | 18 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 9.00 | 2.00 |   | 2 | A Brown | 5.0 | 0 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ~ | 2.00 |   | 3 | B Bentley | 8.1 | 3 | 19 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4.75 | 2.33 |   | 4 | A Anderson | 7.0 | 0 | 24 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 12.00 | 3.43 |   | 5 | H Gillin | 2.0 | 0 | 16 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ~ | 8.00 |   |
    | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |   | Score | 8 | 13 | 21 | 29 | 32 | 34 | 48 | 53 | 82 | 89 |   | Bat Out | 2 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 10 | 9 |   |
    | Batsman | How Out | Bowler | Runs | 4s | 6s | 1 | A Warrender | lbw | H Ahmed | 1 |   |   | 2 | D Coates | ct H Ahmed | AH Ali | 5 |   |   | 3 | G Kinnear | run out |   | 5 |   |   | 4 | N Getti | ct F Ahmed | A McDonald | 44 |   |   | 5 | N Rintoul | ct F Ahmed | A McDonald | 6 |   |   | 6 | A Anderson | not out |   | 10 |   |   | 7 | F Khan | ct J Sohail | A McDonald | 5 |   |   | 8 | H Gillin | not out |   | 8 |   |   | 9 | B Bentley | dnb |   |   |   |   | 10 | A Brown | dnb |   |   |   |   | 11 | B Rintoul | dnb |   |   |   |   |   |   |   | Extras | 9 |   |   | Total |   |   | 93 for 6 |
    | Bowler | Overs | Mdns | Runs | Wkts | Wds | NBs | Avg | Econ |   | 1 | Z Sharif | 7.2 | 2 | 19 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ~ | 2.59 |   | 2 | AH Ali | 7.0 | 1 | 13 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 13.00 | 1.86 |   | 3 | A McDonald | 9.0 | 3 | 21 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 7.00 | 2.33 |   | 4 | H Ahmed | 5.0 | 1 | 12 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 12.00 | 2.40 |   | 5 | J Wilson | 7.0 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ~ | 0.71 |   | 6 | R Erasmus | 3.0 | 0 | 18 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ~ | 6.00 |   |
    | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |   | Score | 7 | 16 | 16 | 29 | 69 | 79 |   |   |   |   |   | Bat Out | 2 | 3 | 1 | 5 | 4 | 7 |   |   |   |   |   |
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