Match report Scotland v Worcs totesport League 2004 by John Ward

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Scorecard:

Scotland v Worcestershire

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In a close match, the last of the season at Grange Cricket Club in Edinburgh, Worcestershire beat Scotland by just nine runs in a match that was close-run from beginning to end. That the match took place at all was a blessing after the problems caused by the weather.

 

A brief but torrential downpour half an hour before play was due to start threatened to deal Scotland their first totally abandoned match in the 45-over competition. However, an improvement in the weather and superb work by the ground staff achieved the almost miraculous, and a 22-over match was scheduled to start at 4.15 p.m. – even then only because both teams were keen to play, for differing reasons, in dubious conditions when some water had leaked on to the pitch. Whether it would be allowed to finish was another matter entirely.

 

Worcestershire won the toss and decided to bat, with the light already bad enough for first-class cricket to be suspended. It was a dubious decision, as conditions could only improve; any worse and the match would be abandoned. Paul Hoffman bowled the first ball and batsman Vikram Solanki saw it well enough to drive it off the back foot through the covers. This seemed to be his favourite stroke as he repeated it next over off the left-arm Asim Butt, together with another boundary through midwicket. It was not quite the abandoned hitting of TwentyTwenty cricket, but Worcestershire probably considered themselves strong enough not to need that approach.

 

Solanki continued to attack, reaching 21 out of 25 in three overs, while Graeme Hick at the other end was much quieter, making 7 before he slashed Butt to third man, caught by Dewald Nel for 7; 29 for one in the fourth over. Andrew Hall made just 2 before edging Butt to the wicketkeeper, Douglas Lockhart; 40 for two in the sixth over.

 

Ben Smith (5) was next to go, brilliantly caught one-handed, low to his left, at slip off Nel; 47 for three in the seventh over. Nel bowled an accurate line just outside off stump and David Leatherdale found it hard to lay a bat on him. When he finally did, he edged a low catch to Watson again at slip and departed for 7; 63 for four after nine overs, the last being a wicket-maiden.

 

Off the first ball of the next over, Worcestershire suffered their most serious blow as Solanki skyed Stewart Bruce to Floyd Reifer at deepish midwicket and departed for 36 off 30 balls. With five down now for 63, the county were in some trouble.

 

More was to follow. Gareth Batty (1), under pressure, misjudged the bounce and could only lob a gently skyer off Bruce to midwicket, the ubiquitous Watson; 69 for six in the 10th over. Ironically for Worcestershire, the light was now improving steadily and there was even the odd gleam of sun.

 

Stephen Moore and Kabir Ali began to look for, and find, quick singles and played their game that way, apart from a big six by Kabir off Bruce over wide long-on. The partnership flourished, with Kabir the dominant partner, until Watson trapped Moore lbw with his slow-medium ‘dobbers’ for 10; 109 for seven in the 17th over.

 

Kabir made 33 before he lashed out at left-arm spinner Sridharan Sriram and was stumped by Lockhart; new man Matt Mason was out in similar fashion two balls later, without addition, and Worcestershire were now 117 for eight in the 20th over. A third stumping was to come, as a frustrated Nadeem Malik (4) gave it away easily off the final ball of the innings, stumped off Sriram.

 

Steve Rhodes was unbeaten with 7, another not-out taking his ToteSport average for the season to 119 and leaving everyone to wonder why he came in so low down the over. Worcestershire finished on 128 for nine off their 22 overs. Sriram took three for 17, all stumped, while there were two wickets each for Butt, Nel and Bruce.

 

The statistics, together with the improvement in conditions for batting, convinced the local Scots they were favourites to win this match. They opened with Sriram and Butt, the quality batsman and the pinch-hitter. Butt produced a powerful back-foot boundary through extra cover off Mason in the first over, but he made only 6 before, in the next over, Kabir spectacularly sent his middle stump somersaulting out of the ground; 16 for one.

 

Sriram and Watson shared a good solid partnership, keeping the score moving mainly with ones and twos, until Sriram fell for 24, trying to nudge Malik to third man and instead nudged the ball to the keeper, Rhodes. Scotland were 45 for two in the 10th over, behind on the run rate but with wickets in hand.

 

Watson was playing with great skill, and pulled a short ball from Malik over midwicket for six. However, later in the same over he tried to swing another six over square leg, but a top edge resulted in a good catch by Mason near the fine-leg boundary for 26; 58 for three in the 12th over.

 

With two comparatively new batsmen at the crease in Reifer and the South African Cedric English, Scotland had to knuckled down and rebuild, while ensuring against a collapse. The required run rate rose towards ten an over, dangerous for a team with limited experience. Reifer was trapped lbw by a yorker from Leatherdale for 18; 79 for four in the 16th over.

 

English had only 3 to his name at this stage, and he added just two more before slicing a catch to Hall at backward point; 81 for five in the 17th over and the match was slipping away from Scotland. David Watts and Gregor Maiden struggled to pierce the field, even for singles, and with three overs to go 34 runs were still needed.

 

In the final over, with 19 needed, Leatherdale’s yorker again took a wicket, bowling Maiden for 8, and then Watts for 13 – 110 for seven in the final over – while Lockhart hit a final defiant blow, hammering him over long-on for six. But Scotland finished nine runs short of Worcestershire’s total in a good final match of the season for the home side. Kabir was voted Man of the Match, narrowly pipping Solanki.

 

(Article: Copyright © 2004 John Ward)