Cricket: Largo 1sts slump to third successive league defeat

Largo captain Hughes Gillin won the toss and decided to bat first, opening with Das and Cusick.

The first wicket arrived when Das was caught in the deep off the bowling of Rayner for 9, leaving Largo 32/1 off 15 overs.

Robinson came to the crease and he managed to find the gaps and rotate the strike well to anchor the innings but Largo were struggling to create partnerships with Cusick and Gillin both falling to Louw for 19 and 6 respectively before Sneddon and Brown both failed to build on starts to leave Largo 92/5 with just 12 overs to go.

The wicket of Brown brought Ben Coates to the crease and he found boundaries all around the ground with a couple of impressive sixes to cover helping build a partnership of 80 with Robinson.

Robinson would move to a deserved 50 before being bowled with the penultimate ball of the innings leaving Coates 41 not out off 38 balls and Largo on 172/7 off their 45 overs.

In reply Largo opened with Michie and Sneddon and Michie continued his 18th birthday celebrations with the wicket of Lenekar for a duck, before taking a catch at short fine leg to get Lowe out after Sneddon’s short pitched delivery.

A third wicket came when captain Gillin clean bowled Qureshi to make it 66/3. But number four Davidson then found it easy to find the boundary off anything loose, unlike the home side earlier.

Gillin would pick up two further wickets in the shape of Rodger and Rayner but firstly Mclean and then Williams provided good support to Davidson as he passed 50.

Largo changed up the bowling, looking desperately for another breakthrough on a pitch that had clearly got better for batting as the day went on.

But with a mix of big hitting down the ground from Williams and far too many lose deliveries to Davidson, the game was taken away from the home side with Stoneywood Dyce reaching their target with over 10 overs left and Davidson’s innings the difference in the end for the league leaders.

Largo will look to get back to winning ways at strugglers Arbroath United 2nds this weekend.