The forecast was not good, even a little bit of snow fell in the morning, however the opening of the new season was actually greeted with lovely sunshine, even if it was a bit cold.
We welcomed SMRH II to a beautiful looking Turpie & Co Sports Ground. Bobby lost the toss and Livi were asked to bat. Having agreed to reduce the match to 40 overs, the innings was really a tale of 2 halves. Livi made a solid start with the first wicket falling in the 7th over (Bobby) however Fahad and Ruan batted steadily and sensibly with the view of trying to take their partnership through to at least the 30th over and then to become more expansive.
They very nearly did that putting on 112 for the 2nd wicket (our 2nd century partnership of the year). They both departed in quick succession in the 28th & 29th overs, firstly Ruan (59) and then Fahad (52). This was the start of a steady fall of wickets, only really to be halted by some late order hitting by Naveen (21) and Alan (6*).
The aim had been to bat out our 40 overs and we achieved that with Zeeshan being caught behind from the last ball of the innings having scored 178. This was a little below what we thought we might get at one stage but still felt it was competitive.
In reply Zeeshan and Naveen opened, however any short balls were being easily dispatched by their opener. We didn't have to wait long for the breakthrough Zeeshan clean bowling Brown (2) with a good full length delivery.
Speirs who had been pulling everything short finally fell into the trap for 22 being caught by Ruan off Ramesh's first ball and then Hamad took the 3rd wicket with SMRH II on 49 after 13 overs.
We knew that we would have to face a partnership at some point and the dangerous Burgess and Landsberg came together and did just that until just after the drinks break. The game was beginning to get away from Livi so Bobby brought Zeeshan back for a second spell to try and shake things up a bit and immediately made the breakthrough bowling Burgess (47). Whilst Landsberg was still looking dangerous the Livi bowlers - Zeeshan (2-29), Ramesh (1-26) and Jim (2-21) really began to dry the runs up.
Jim bowled Landsberg (41) in the 28th over with SMRH II still needing 40 to win, the pressure was beginning to tell. A good run out by Naveen quickly followed and it was now SMRH II who were beginning to struggle. Jim had one end tied up and when Ramesh's spell finished Bobby brought back Ruan (2-18). Whilst SMRH II put on 21 for the 7th wicket, it took 7 overs, so with 4 overs to go they still needed 19 with 3 wickets remaining. These were quickly dispatched finishing with a good run out by Alan McDonald and Livi had won by 18 runs, taking 20 points, whilst SMRH II achieved maximum losing points (10).
A great start to the season and also fantastic to have the support we had to see us achieve this result.
  Livingston | 1st XI | v |   | SMRH II | Date: | 2015-04-25 |
Type of Match | League Division 2 | at | Turpie & Co Sports Ground |
Livingston | 178 all out (40 overs) | SMRH II | 162 all out (37.4 overs) |
Result: | Livingston won by 16 runs |
    | Batsman | How Out | Bowler | Runs | 4s | 6s | 1 | R Bowering | bowled | R Kapoor | 6 |   |   | 2 | F Ahmed | lbw | R Augustine | 52 |   |   | 3 | R Erasmus | bowled | SRK Pilli | 59 |   |   | 4 | H Ahmed | ct DA Sharkey | SRK Pilli | 7 |   |   | 5 | R Duvvuri | st DA Sharkey | R Augustine | 1 |   |   | 6 | S Lancaster | ct R Augustine | MR Burgess | 6 |   |   | 7 | J Wilson | st DA Sharkey | SRK Pilli | 7 |   |   | 8 | I Khairuddin | bowled | T Trivedi | 1 |   |   | 9 | N Subhanaboina | ct SRK Pilli | MDR Speirs | 21 |   |   | 10 | A McDonald | not out |   | 6 |   |   | 11 | Z Sharif | ct DA Sharkey | MDR Speirs | 0 |   |   |   |   |   | Extras | 12 |   |   | Total |   |   | 178 all out |
    | Bowler | Overs | Mdns | Runs | Wkts | Wds | NBs | Avg | Econ |   | 1 | R Kapoor | 8.0 | 2 | 22 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 22.00 | 2.75 |   | 2 | SRK Pilli | 8.0 | 0 | 28 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 9.33 | 3.50 |   | 3 | MDR Speirs | 6.0 | 0 | 36 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 18.00 | 6.00 |   | 4 | R Augustine | 7.0 | 0 | 41 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 20.50 | 5.86 |   | 5 | T Trivedi | 5.0 | 0 | 23 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 23.00 | 4.60 |   | 6 | MR Burgess | 6.0 | 0 | 21 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 21.00 | 3.50 |   |
    | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |   | Score | 15 | 127 | 130 | 136 | 136 | 145 | 149 | 154 | 177 | 178 |   | Bat Out | 1 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 7 | 8 | 6 | 9 | 11 |   |
    | Batsman | How Out | Bowler | Runs | 4s | 6s | 1 | MDR Speirs | ct R Erasmus | R Duvvuri | 22 |   |   | 2 | CS Brown | bowled | Z Sharif | 2 |   |   | 3 | MR Burgess | bowled | Z Sharif | 47 |   |   | 4 | DA Sharkey | bowled | H Ahmed | 0 |   |   | 5 | N Landsberg | bowled | J Wilson | 41 |   |   | 6 | EA Campbell | ct S Lancaster | R Erasmus | 13 |   |   | 7 | R Augustine | run out |   | 0 |   |   | 8 | DAB Gibson | ct H Ahmed | J Wilson | 13 |   |   | 9 | SRK Pilli | bowled | R Erasmus | 2 |   |   | 10 | T Trivedi | not out |   | 0 |   |   | 11 | R Kapoor | run out |   | 0 |   |   |   |   |   | Extras | 22 |   |   | Total |   |   | 162 all out |
    | Bowler | Overs | Mdns | Runs | Wkts | Wds | NBs | Avg | Econ |   | 1 | Z Sharif | 7.0 | 1 | 29 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 14.50 | 4.14 |   | 2 | N Subhanaboina | 4.0 | 0 | 13 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ~ | 3.25 |   | 3 | H Ahmed | 7.0 | 0 | 33 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 33.00 | 4.71 |   | 4 | R Duvvuri | 8.0 | 1 | 26 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 26.00 | 3.25 |   | 5 | A McDonald | 2.0 | 0 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ~ | 5.50 |   | 6 | R Erasmus | 3.4 | 0 | 18 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 9.00 | 4.91 |   | 7 | J Wilson | 6.0 | 1 | 21 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 10.50 | 3.50 |   |
    | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |   | Score | 17 | 37 | 49 | 105 | 139 | 139 | 160 | 162 | 162 | 162 |   | Bat Out | 2 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 6 | 8 | 9 | 11 |   |
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