Published: Wednesday, 24th June, 2009 1:43pm

Man of the match Oliver

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SENSATIONAL 17-year-old Graham Oliver scored his maiden century as Clackmannan County CC over powered Watsonians thirds at the Arms on Saturday.

A rain delay led to a reduced 45 over game between the teams but Oliver"s Man of the Match performance gave the crowd plenty to cheer about.

Having won the toss, Clackmannan skipper Craig Black decided to bat first against the 10 man opposition - Clackmannan were kind enough to lend the away team a fielder for the duration of the game to even the sides up.

County opened proceedings with Richard Passe and Oliver, and the score quickly raced to 54 after 10 as Oliver took a liking to the pace of the wicket while Passe played the supporting role by giving his partner the majority of the strike.

With the score on 74, Passe was caught in mid off for 15. Black (34) and Oliver quickly put on an additional 50 run partnership in seven overs before Black was caught by the on loan Clackmannan fielder.

Dan Smith then joined Oliver - who had passed 50 - at the wicket, and was settling into a beautiful rhythm.

This partnership saw the score progress to 182 off 30 overs before Smithy (12) was unfortunately trapped LBW.

Hefer (5) didn"t stay long and was replaced by Oliver Snr. Gordon joined his youngest out in the middle, Graham by now had moved into the nervous nineties, as the gathering crowd sat restlessly on the edges of their chairs.

The wait was finally over in the 36th over, when a delicately played sweep brought up the promising youngsters maiden century to the joy and jubilation of all involved.

A few overs later Oliver was bowled for a splendid 111.

The remaining batsmen did a superb job as they helped themselves to 40 runs off the final 7 overs and move the total to 278 off 45 overs.

After tea Clackmannan passed the new ball to Rizwan Ashraf and Keith Hefer. The first breakthrough came in the third over, caught by Oliver off Ashraf. Hefer took a wicket two overs later caught by Tippu Sultan.

Black replaced Ashraf and was given LBW in his first over, then another two wickets in his next over. Sultan also picked up two wickets as he replaced Hefer.

The damage had been done, though, and Clackmannan could afford to relax with the scoreboard reading 43 for seven.

Black picked up his fourth wicket before Matthew Booth took the final wicket, another catch by Sultan. Watsonians finished on 53 all out.

It was a day to remember for Man of the Match Oliver who produced arguably the best innings of the season so far.