Glenrothes 2nd XI made the relatively short trip to Upper Largo on Saturday to play Largo 2nd XI in the Breedon Strathmore and Perthshire Cricket Union (SPCU) Division 2.

A negotiated toss with Largo ("we normally bowl first") invited to bowl, saw Glenrothes open with players from the opposite end of the age spectrum - Muhammad Tayyiub and David Snook. Both looked relatively comfortable, with Tayyiub in particular demonstrating his increasing confidence with some classy shots, but found runs hard to come by on a very slow outfield and some excellent bowling from the home side.

With Snook retiring ill, this brought Karthik Coppisetty to the crease and the young batting pair consolidated for a while before Tayyiub was first wicket to fall to a caught and bowled by young Merrington. Craig Waters was soon to follow, bowled MacDonald bringing in another youngster Israq Rihan. A very tight run-out against Rihan was over-turned by the very friendly Largo players to allow Rihan to bat on though just two overs later he was to be dismissed as he unfortunately hit is own wicket in chasing a very wide ball down the leg side.

This brought father and son Ravi Kiran and Coppisetty together, and Coppisetty continued to hit a number of good shots before both were to be dismissed from their nemesis - any slow blower! Coppisetty had made a very valuable 25.

Some late innings hitting from young Ben Krzyzanowski and Colin Dryburgh (the latter will laugh at the description of some "classy shots" included) pushed the innings to a close at 101 for 9 after the 40 overs - after being 36 for 3 from 20 overs, it was a good recovery and the inexperienced batting line up should take a lot of pride in what they achieved.

For the 2nd innings, Largo opened with Bentley and Galloway and it was to be the latter who soon demonstrated that hitting harder and further can counter a slow outfield! Opening bowlers Kevin Le Roux (on debut) and young Krzyzanowski bowled well but, as was to be common through the innings, some dropped catches and numerous half-chances were to prove costly.

Le Roux was to make the breakthrough in the 9th over as he took a very sharp return catch from the powerful Galloway (29) - take the catch or take one in the sore ones!!! The bowlers were rotated round, with the youngsters Tayyiub, Coppisetty and Rihan all bowling confidently (and regularly hearing "catch it...ooohhh").

Shaun Rowcliffe also bowled a couple of good overs, demonstrating his ever-improving skills and confidence thanks to a power of work at training - well done Shaun!

But by this time, Bentley (47*) had been able to put his worries about not hitting the ball sweetly aside and started hitting a number of boundaries, and with excellent support from young Harry Collinson (15*), took Largo to the win at 105 for 1 wicket in the 20th over.

Many thanks to Largo for a great game and yet again for the very positive spirit in which the play!

Glenrothes Cricket Club

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