Glenrothes 2nd XI hosted St Modans 2nd XI from Bannockburn at Gilvenbank Park in Glenrothes on Saturday, in the opening round of league fixtures in the Strathmore and Perthshire Cricket Union (SPCU) Division 3.

St Modans won the toss and chose to bat first, though very quickly questioned their own choices as Kevin Le Roux (3 wickets for 9 runs from 5 overs) bowled the first three batters (narrowly missing out on a hat-trick in the process) and fellow opening bowler Jordan Smith claimed a further wicket thanks to an excellent catch by Ben Anderson at point.

At 11 for the loss of four wickets, it was St Modans captain Yasir Mohammed to come in an change the game with power hitting rarely seen at this level of cricket, along with Malcolm Sutherland. Young Joe Myles though was to make the breakthrough, as a tentative prod by Sutherland (23) saw the ball bounce back and knock the bails of his stumps.

From there, Mohammed upped the offensive and sent the ball out the park on regular occasions. However, his fellow batters could not keep up and wickets continued to fall - Ikram Ullah taking two wickets including a good diving catch from Rahman Tawheedi and then Jordan Smith (3 for 14 from 6.3) taking two from two balls to close the innings. Mohammed finished agonisingly short of a deserved century on 98 not out and St Modans finishing on 152 all out.

In reply Glenrothes lost opening batter David Snook cheaply but fellow opener Ullah was joined by Karthik Coppisetty and the two began to mirror the destructive approach of Mohammed in the first innings, sending the ball to the boundary regularly.

Following a century stand, Coppisetty (65) was bowled by Shyaminth Sasi with Glenrothes 118 for 2 from 18 overs. This left Glenrothes requiring 35 runs to win with eights wickets in hand with 27 overs remaining. Simple really?

Well, not quite as a Glenrothes Cricket Club problem from the previous season of "one wicket brings another" was to unfortunately be repeated a few times over with Vaibhav Parikh taking an excellent four for 12 from four overs.

It was though left to Wahab Tawheedi to see Glenrothes over the winning line, as he struck a boundary with scores tied and Glenrothes then ending on 156 for 8 in the 26th over.

A great win for the 2nd XI team, with fielding a particular highlight though the destructive batting by the teenager Coppisetty deservedly gets the main plaudits. Many thanks to St Modans for playing the game so positively through out.