Clackmannan County's cricketers suffered another defeat as they went down to Heriot's 2nd XI in Edinburgh on Saturday.

Captain Rizwan Ashraf lost the toss, meaning Clacks were first to bowl. The early signs were good as Keith Hefer bowled Acheson for a duck with just the second ball of the match.

Hefer and Ashraf put in a stunning effort, limiting the hosts to just ten runs from the opening ten overs. Heriot's began to find gaps in the field and moved the score on to 21, but just as they did Ahsraf claimed the Wee County side's second wicket of the match.

Mehboob and Alamgir fared slightly worse than their team-mates, with the home side able to find a bit of rhythm, and by the time drinks were taken in the 25th over they were on 71 for four.

After the break, Heriot's really took the game to Clacks and some aggressive batting saw them set a total of 192 for eight wickets.

Mehboob and Hefer opened the batting for the visitors and although the former got his side off to a quick start, Hefer was struggling and was caught for just seven runs. Cameron Graham came to the crease and adopted a cautious approach, while Mehboob dispatched the ball to all corners of the ground.

Unfortunately for Clacks, he was bowled LBW for 37 runs in the tenth over. Dolan entered the fray in his place, joining Graham who was swiftly dispatched for 26.

The big-hitting Alamgir could not take advantage and was bowled for just nine, before Dolan and Alan Oliver steadied the ship with a run of singles.

Heriot's attack showed good discipline and made it difficult for Clacks to put any meaningful scores on the board. After Dolan was dismissed LBW the visitors needed 53 runs from 72 balls, Ashraf stepped up to the crease and things began to get tense, with he and Oliver securing some tight runs.

Graham Oliver, who had been injured while fielding, came in after Alan Oliver was run out for 21. Shortly afterwards Ashraf was caught for 16, Deacon was run out for two and Hutchison was out LBW for a duck, leaving Oliver not out with two runs.

Clacks finished on 164 all out and lost the match by 29 runs.

This was another disappointing loss for Clackmannan. Heriot's game plan was quite clear, run hard between the wickets from the off and put Clackmannan under pressure, then when bowling protect the boundaries and bowl a disciplined line outside off stump, stopping Clackmannan from scoring too freely. On the other hand the county were a little too aggressive when bowling to batsmen who were set and struggled at time to rotate the strike when batting.

A further feature of the county batting currently is a lack of responsibility when batsmen are set. Rather than batsmen applying themselves and showing the determination to kick on get a big score the mentality is that there job is done for the day and they can now bring out their full range of shots without any consideration of risk. This needs to change if Clackmannan are to end their run of poor batting performances.

Parkside driving school man of the match is Tariq Mehboob for a good all round performance with bat and ball.