Keith Graham on Saltires v Middlesex
I’ve often heard football commentators refer to ‘games of two halves’! This was a game of four halves! The first part was good, the second appalling, the third very encouraging and the fourth disastrous.
Craig Wright was back but because of the absence of John Blain, Callum McLeod and Gordon Goudie, he had to take the new ball along with Dewald Nel. These days Wright’s value to the team with the ball is that he can tighten the tourniquet in mid-innings.
His straight ten over spell was niggardly to say the least with only 25 runs conceded but who would step up to the plate thereafter we wondered? Nel made an early breakthrough when he had the Australian wonder boy Phil Hughes playing on in a good first spell. Later the Greenock paceman was to suffer along with most of the other bowlers as Shaun Udal in particular, went berserk.
Gordon Drummond, who did not have a happy game, bowled tidily in a first spell when he replaced Nel at the Pavilion end but he does seem to stray towards leg stump too often and thus gets picked off. However, he was unfortunate to see Simon Smith put down Owais Shah standing up.
Nevertheless, the bowlers had done a sterling job, with the support of some sharp fielding and Middlesex were being contained. The introduction of Jan Stander at the Nursery end however, took the pressure off the batting side. The Stoneywood Dyce all-rounder bowled too short and was accordingly punished. Hammy had seen enough after just two overs.
Meanwhile Nick Compton, having run a hurried three, pulled up with what looked like a groin strain, retiring after compiling 41. Almost immediately, Stander, brought back at the Pavilion end, found a perfect yorker to get through Shah’s defence. Meanwhile, Glenn Rogers had found his rhythm at the Nursery end, removing Dawid Malan through a catch by keeper Smith, after the batsman had played the ball on to his foot.
Middlesex had reached 136 for 3 in 38 overs and the game if anything was in the Saltires’ favour. Now however, Middlesex claimed their batting power play and suddenly fortunes turned completely round. It was as if the Middlesex batsmen had suddenly been let off the leash. Eoin Morgan unveiled his penchant for the reverse sweep … to devastating effect. He mixed unorthodoxy with some excellent authentic shots and in the five overs of power play, Middlesex added 67 runs.
The entire face of the game had been changed, the Scottish fielding became distinctly flaky and when Udal began a violent assault, simply fell apart. What happened to the fielders is hard to guess but Udal eventually went on to reach 79 not out having been dropped six times, four of those chances absolutely straightforward, as Middlesex racked up 144 from the final twelve overs of their innings – 12 an over!
A shell shocked Gavin Hamilton for once failed when ex county colleague and England seamer Chris Silverwood, having cut him in half with his fourth ball got enough movement to induce an edge to the keeper from his sixth. Fraser Watts immediately responded with a classic cover drive for four and Ryan Watson at last emerged from the cloud of failure to bat with real assurance, finding the boundary and once clearing it with the aplomb to which we were once accustomed.
The second wicket pair added 53 before Watts waved at a ball outside his off-stump without discernible foot movement to give a second catch to keeper Scott. But with Borgas showing excellent cutting technique and Watson looking increasingly confident the Saltires had reached 78, well ahead of the equivalent progress made by Middlesex, when the ex skipper went for a lofted drive, mistimed and was easily caught at mid on for 47.
Borgas continued on his merry way but soon lost Neil McCallum in the 23rd over trying to cut a short ball from Dexter off the front foot and dragging on. Three overs later, Stander tried to work Dexter on the on side only to get a top edge and perish tamely. Thereafter it was the domino effect that quickly brought closure.
Borgas went to a low return catch to man of the match Udal, Wright perished to Malan’s first ball, failing to pick the googly and palpably lbw, Drummond lofted the same bowler to mid off and finally Nel was bowled, also by a Malan googly.
So it’s back to the drawing board. Skipper Gavin Hamilton has the current disadvantage of having one arm tied behind his back with the unavailability due to injury and other commitments of the likes of Blain, McLeod and Goudie. This was a curate’s egg of a performance with some good bits and some really bad bits. Pete Steindl and Hammy have got to concentrate on the good parts and eliminate the bad parts. Easily said but how easily done?
