Afghans fail to make Scotland follow on in second I-Cup innings
Mike Stanger reports on a curious day of ups and downs for Scotland against Afghanistan on the second day of the Intercontinental Cup at Citylets Ayr...
In multi-day first-class cricket, they say that teams should play in 'sessions' - those two-hour segments between interludes of nourishment which are largely dispensed with in one-day cricket. Having 'lost' all three sessions of the first day of the I-Cup match against Afghanistan, Scotland badly needed to play catch up on the second day. And, as ever, cricket's capacity to surprise again came to the fore.
It started very encouragingly, as Scotland's bowlers and fielders finally got their act together in the first session on Thursday, with Dewald Nel fining the right line and length, while Majid Haq and Gordon Drummond squeezed the run-rate magnificently, each picking up a couple of wickets. Afghanistan lost all five of their remaining wickets without managing to break free and score lots of additional runs. In fact, that first session saw the addition of just 86 runs in the space of two hours' play, and lost all five of their remaining wickets. It could have been less, but Samiullah Shenwari was determined to reach his maiden first-class century, and did so with only a couple of balls to spare, last batsman out off the final ball before lunch.
So the Scots could claim a sessional 'victory' at last, restricting their first-innings target to 'only' 435. But it would need several more sessions of concentrated concentration on the part of Scotland's batsmen to overtake such a target. Sad to say, they were never at the races.
Not that there was any rush, but the six points from a first-innings lead were the crucial prize, and seemed to be completely beyond them. Fraser Watts got to 16, then gave Hamid Hassan his first wicket, caught in the slips. Ryan Flannigan froze slightly in the headlights before breaking free with a nice pick-up shot to deep mid-wicket, and was incredibly unlucky to be run out at the very end of the third run when Mirwais Ashraf scored a direct hit at the non-striker's end from a distance of 70 yards.
From then on, it was a procession. First, the iconic 'Freddie' Hassan softened the batsmen up with some ludicrously wide bowling - not given by umpire de Silva, however wide the deliveries seemed to justify the 'unfair ball' tag stipulated in the Law on wide balls. Then from four mesmerised Scots he induced edges - down leg and on the offside - which were successfully pouched by simply fantastic fingertip dives by wicket-keeper Mohammed Shahzad. Hassan was magnificent, his lumbering run and unexpected pace and bounce causing all the batters to hurry their strokes, usually to conclusive effect. He finished with 6 for 40 from 18 overs, and looked knackered.
Having made double figures - just - Ewan Chalmers played over a Hassan yorker. Either side of the tea interval at 47-3, Berrington, Parker, Haq and Sheikh all departed to the diving Shahzad for single figures, and Iqbal allowed Mohammed Nabi to get an off-break through the gate before he had scored. And when skipper Gordon Drummond skied centurion Shenwari to Ashraf just a few yards from the stumps, that left Simon Smith and Dewald Nel forming the last-wicket pair, the score a dismal 76-9.
There followed a superb partnership of 63 runs, with historians scurrying to their stats to remind themselves that the record 10th-wicket partnership for Scotland (84) was set more than 100 years ago! With five sure-footed boundaries, Nel made 36, his personal first-class best by a country mile, and Smith helped himself to singles to remain undefeated on 19*. Batting looked easy with this pair, where before, with Hassan in full flight, every ball was a trap.
Scotland's final wicket fell 18 minutes before stumps were due, and there was time for only one more over. Scotland had ended 296 runs behind Afghanistan, and everyobe expected the follow-on to be imposed. Astonishingly, Afghanistan chose to bat again, apparently because Hassan and the six-foot-six left arm opening seamer Shapoor Zadran were both carrying injuries. But the lack of logic of the decision was dumbfounding.
To this observer, Afghanistan have now put the pressure on themselves, and kept the door ajar for what would be an astonishing change of fortunes if the Scots take advantage over the final two days. It is Afghanistan who now have to judge when to make their declaration. And, though the Scots' showing in the first innings should make an Afghan victory a shoo-in, all it needs is an overdue inspirational innings from Watts, or another 150+ partnership between the likes of the now off-form Berrington and Iqbal, and suddenly, the Scots could find themselves in control of the final outcome from the fourth innings.
To boost their chances of reaching the I-Ciup final, Afghanistan need a 20-point victory. The nine points they would get from a draw would not suffice to take them ahead of the Scots; and they need to take 10 Scottish wickets for victory. So how many sessions will Afghanistan allow themselves, to give them time to get Scotland's rag, tag and bobtail batting line-up all out? And can they risk the Scots playing successfully for a draw - or even forging an unlikely win? There's plenty of intrigue left to be enacted in the six sessions remaining.
Day 2 scoreboard summary: Afghanistan 435 all out (126.5 overs, Shenwari 102, Styanikzai 93, Karim Sadiq 67, Mohammad Shahzad 54, Noor Ali Zadran 36) and 0-0 (1 over); Scotland 139 all out (61.4 overs, Nel 36, Hassan 6-40).
- The live internet video streaming coverage of this match on Cricket Scotland TV has now totted up over 5,000 views during the first two days' play. You can follow the game live on the Cricket Scotland TV player on the home page of the Cricket Scotland website.
