Gillin and Kinnear inspire Largo to a deserved victory

Captain David Scott having won the toss invited the visitors, Tranent & Preston Village, to make first use of a good batting track.

The East Lothian side got away to a good start with Lee and Bhadrachala seeing off the Largo opening bowlers Scott and Gillin taking the score to 37 after 8 overs.

Change bowlers A. Brown and Eglinton bowled with great pace but edges tended to fly to the boundary rather than to catchers and it wasn’t until the sixteenth over that Eglinton finally achieved the breakthrough bowling Lee for 40 and the score on 78.

While the wicket lifted Largo spirits it was a controversial not out decision for a caught behind which would have removed the dangerous Bhadachala which seemed to really enervate the Largo team.

Vikram fell LBW to Harney; Russell was caught and bowled by Eglinton and Hoenigmann was caught by A. Brown from the bowling of Harney collectively adding four to the total.

Noor Ali Bhadachala took the score to 116 in the 29th over before being caught in the deep from the bowling of Stevie Warrender for 50.

Ali and Mukherjee added 51 before Warrender had Mukherjee caught by wicket keeper Kinnear for 20 and it took a sharp bit of fielding by Wilson to run out Ali for a good 40.

Rintoul dominated the final overs of the match dismissing the visiting skipper for 9 and running out Booker for a “duck”. Tranent and Preston Village finished on 187 for 9 from their 40 overs. With the par score for East Drive wickets being 200 plus Largo felt confident of chasing this down.

After only 10 overs Barclay(21) and Wilson(0) found themselves back in the pavilion and the score on 36 both falling to Vikram.

Kinnear remained rock steady and was joined by Hughes Gillin.

By drinks the pair had taken the score to 77 with every chance of pushing on to the target despite the visitors skipper having five fielders riding the boundary.

While many fours were stopped, Kinnear and Gillin ran quick singles and twos keeping up the run rate and it looked as if Kinnear would bat through the innings until he was caught for 45 from the bowling of Rizwan departing with the score on 149.

Rintoul joined Gillin as he pushed on towards his century but he was to fall 11 runs short when Russell bowled him for 89. Rintoul and Brown saw Largo over the line with six wickets and three overs in hand.

Gillin and Kinnear were undoubtedly the stars of the show. Next week the firsts are hoping to overturn the loss they had to Edinburgh South early in the season.