1sts Negotiate Stirling County

Stirling County CC 162 all out
(M Tweedie 53, G Anderson 44, G Taylor 26, A Nangia 3 for 23)

Falkland 166 for 7
(J Henderson 40, B Strachan 29, C Ryan 23, R Hewage 3 for 37)

Falkland won by 3 wkts.

Falkland won this 45 Over pre-season friendly at New Williamfield in some fine spring sunshine, hopefully betokening some good weather for the rest of the season.

Stirling won the toss and decided to bat on a fairly good pitch but with a slow outfield. Akshay Nangia, a fast left armer, opened impressively with two wickets in his first over, but thereafter Anderson and Tweedie took hold of things and put on 86 runs for the third wicket, taking advantage of some wayward Falkland fielding and bowling which was prodigal of wides, eventually conceding 23 of them in the 43.1 Overs. But there was some good bowling as well and wickets began to fall after the departure of Tweedie and Anderson, and some stiff resistance from Taylor. Connor Ryan with three victims behind the stumps and no byes conceded was particularly effective near the end.

In reply, Jack Henderson’s 40 included some fine stroke play, but after his departure, Falkland’s innings was bogged down for a spell in the face of some good bowling from Hewage and Anderson, but Ben Strachan picked things up a little, and as the temperature began to drop, he saw Falkland home with three wickets and more than 5 overs to spare. It was a win, and a good one.

It was also, of course, a learning experience, and it is to be hoped that Falkland learn that the concession of 23 Wides out of a total of 162 is rather too many, and the fierce opposition that we will face in the coming months will take advantage of any kind of slackness. Yet there is a great amount of talent in this team, one feels, and if everyone concentrates on the task in hand, there is no reason to believe that Falkland cannot hold their own even at the highest level. Stirling, with all due respect to them, had about 4 good cricketers and the others were passengers. There will be no passengers in the ESPL!

David Potter