Keith Graham: Good cricket from Sri Lanka, Ireland - and Scotland
Keith Graham recalls and explains some of the best cricket - by the Scots and their visitors - ever witnessed at the Grange in recent years...
If ever there was a sweet n’ sour week in Scottish cricket, then the tournament between Ireland, Sri Lanka and Scotland surely provided it. For a start, the first game between Ireland and Sri Lanka didn’t even start due to wet patches on the square after a weekend’s soaking. It wasn’t as if there were thousands of spectators, but there was a happy, flag-waving posse to welcome the Sri Lankans and I honestly thought that an effort could have been made to play some cricket, even Twenty20 in what frankly were conditions which were not really that bad!
However, it was not to be, so the clash between the two Associates became the opening game. Ireland are without question, in the ascendancy these days. We were top of the Associate pile in 2005 when a comprehensive victory over Ireland in Dublin - with the likes of Blain, Brown and Hamilton in the team - saw the Scots lift the ICC Trophy. Since then, however, the Irish have marched forward with players like Ed Joyce and Eoin Morgan establishing themselves in the England set-up. The Irish squad this time round contained no fewer than six players with county experienc, compared with Scotland’s two.
Notwithstanding Ireland’s breathless start, with runs flowing from the very first over, I would have absolutely no qualms in backing Gordon Drummond’s decision to insert them. After all that rain, there would have to be some freshness in the wicket, but Paul Stirling’s opening salvo certainly gave the Irish a head start. This was for me a first look at Safyaan Sharif and if initially he clearly gave Stirling too much width and had to take some severe punishment, he nevertheless impressed.
What we saw here, as Ryan Watson so expertly put it over the airwaves, was a contradiction of the old batting adage of playing with bat and pad close together. What this form of the game has produced is a different adage, in which width is seen by a batsman with the talent of Stirling to give ample opportunity to swing the arms freely. And Paul Stirling certainly swung his arms to pretty good effect! Sharif is tall and rangy. He works up a fair pace (he’s already in my view the quickest Scot around) and he has a smooth action. Without doubt he is one for the future.
But Stirling is a huge talent. Quite chunky, he certainly gives the ball a rare dint. The six sixes and ten boundaries he registered on his way to a fabulous century came all round the ground, but he was particularly punishing in front of the wicket. The Scots bowlers, I’m afraid, all too often gave him that width that enabled him to free is arms and give it the full monty. In company with Warwickshire’s William Porterfield, the Irish skipper, he raised 68 for the first wicket in no time at all.
I’m not entirely sure about Drummond opening the bowling - although he did manage one of the two maidens delivered by the Scots - but he was tidy enough, as was Josh Davey who nags away without fuss at a brisk medium pace. I like Davey (another of Middlesex’s Celtic Fringe), but by far the best bowling on the Scottish side came predictably from the spinners. We expect it from Majid Haq these days, but Preston Mommsen is proving to be an asset with his brand of off-spin, too. Stirling eventually holed out for 113 taken from just 83 balls – some strike rate – and was well supported by Alex Cusack (71) and Andrew Poynter (51). So dominant were the top order Irish batsmen that a total well in excess of Australia’s record 345 seemed likely. But the spin twins of Mommsen and Haq, with later help from Davey, at last managed to put the brakes on.
Throughout the blitz however, the Scottish fielding never flagged. They fielded like tigers, saving runs galore and holding every opportunity. Ten out of ten in this department! No doubt the short boundary on the eastern side of the ground had a major influence in contributing to the run feast, but the Scots certainly stuck to their guns in the field. The first ball dismissal of Kevin O’Brien, the scourge of England during the recent World Cup, was a real highlight, Haq leaping high like a salmon to clutch in his left hand the top edge offered.
At last, during the latter part of the Irish innings, as Davey and Mommsen - who after dismissing O’Brien was on a hat-trick - brought the run-rate tumbling. In the end, a total of 320 for 8 was at least thirty runs short of what it looked like being when Stirling was thrashing the bowling to all parts of the Grange.
Indeed, the Scottish reply, with Warwickshire’s Boyd Rankin and the evergreen Trent Johnston taking the new ball, was heartening. Kyle Coetzer is currently struggling to force his way into the Durham side, testament in itself to the in-depth strength of the County Champions. His partnership with Fraser Watts was worth 129, accumulated briskly to keep the Scots almost up with the required rate. The consistent Watts was finally trapped in front by the highly-regarded left-arm spinner George Dockrell for a splendid 54. But, with Coetzer going really well and Callum MacLeod providing excellent support, the Scots kept themselves in sight.
Mommsen and Davey kept the score rolling after Coetzer was finally bowled by Rankin for 89: enter Richie Berrington (pictured left)! There followed a display of power not seen from a Scottish batsman since Watson’s famous assault upon the Somerset bowlers on this ground in 2003. The batting power play was taken at the start of the 42nd over and Berrington responded by lofting the 6ft 8ins tall bowler over mid-wicket for a maximum. That was merely a prelude to an astonishing attack on the Irish bowlers. Four boundaries came from the next over and when the Warwickshire bowler had another go, he disappeared over first mid-wicket and then long off for sixes.
Berrington now hammered Dockrell far away into the trees. Trent Johnston, too, disappeared over mid-wicket. The Greenock batsman was mis-hitting sixes now! He reached 50 from just 19 balls and when at last he holed out at long off, he had scored 56 from 23 balls. Irish hearts were broken and Davey took the Scots past the winning post with a flowing cover drive to reach an unbeaten 48. The Scots had five wickets and nine balls in hand. Amazing – a Scottish record ODI total of 323 for 5 made it a day to remember.
And so to Sri Lanka. Again Drummond called correctly and again the opposition were invited to bat. This time the bowlers got the ball into much better areas. However, Jayawardene is one of the world’s top batsmen and it showed during an opening stand of a hundred. There were no real fireworks, no brutal assaults on the Scottish bowlers. Indeed, the Sri Lankans showed a good deal of respect for the Scottish attack and once more must have been impressed by the standard of the home team’s fielding, again a real redeeming feature.
Jayawardene on 38 had one piece of luck when Gordon Drummond failed to hold on to a horrible chance. The Sri Lankan mistimed a lofted off drive and Drummond, turning to run back so the ball came over his shoulder, couldn’t quite hang on. He had reached 64 when he drove Haq high, wide and handsome - only to see Coetzer hang on to a good catch. Davey induced an edge from Dilshan and then Haq removed the other opener Karunaratne through a diving catch by the excellent MacLeod. Mommsen again made a timely intervention to send Kandamby and the highly-rated Chandimal back, but there followed a late flurry from Ajantha Mendis and Lasith Malinga. Malinga hammered a brace of sixes and two boundaries as he raced to 32 from just 15 balls, and Sri Lanka clocked up 284 for 7.
Haq’s figures of 2 for 50 from ten didn’t really do him justice, whilst Mommsen (2 for 19 from four) and Davey (1 for 45 from nine) were, I thought, the pick of the Scottish bowlers. MacLeod’s three catches represented a terrific fielding performance.
Then came Malinga (pictured left)! Malinga is utterly unique amongst the world’s bowlers. On reflection, his run-up is reminiscent of Jeff Thomson, rhythmic and menacing. There is a resemblance, too, in the delivery action, the feet coming together before the final delivery. But whereas Thomson’s arm disappeared behind his back before coming over the top and hurling the ball down, Malinga’s arm is flat. His is the most round-arm action I - or, I suspect, anyone else - has ever seen. It is a technique that, I am told, has its origins in beach cricket with a tennis ball. Well, Coetzer might have preferred it if the fast yorker that slammed into his toes had been delivered with a tennis ball!
Malinga has extraordinary pace at his disposal, but he also has an uncanny ability to deliver a much slower ball – usually a yorker, too - without any perceptible change in action. He also bowls a lethal bouncer which, because it is delivered from such a low action, seems to rip up towards the batsman’s throat. We saw all these variations on a theme. Watts got that slower ball high up on the bat to be easily caught. MacLeod, and then Coetzer, succumbed to fast yorkers in quick succession and, in a flash, Scotland were 21 for 3.
Worse was to follow as Mendis trapped Mommsen in front. Here, too, is a bowler who is out of the ordinary. He is classified as a leg-spin/googly/off-break bowler. In answer to the obvious question, the answer is probably ‘standing on his head in a hammock’! Prasad now struck twice in as many balls, trapping Davey (17) and then having the previous day’s hero, Berrington, caught behind first ball. The one man to stand tall against this lethal attack was Haq. He even coped with Malinga’s deadly yorkers and his changes of pace plus the odd bouncer or two, to reveal a range of strokes that make him a genuine all-rounder. He had reached 34 before being caught behind off Prasad.
It had to be Malinga who finally brought down the curtain, scattering Drummond’s stumps with yet another yorker and having Goudie well caught to wrap things up. The Scots were all out for 101 in 32 overs. Yet I guess that everyone who was there will remember the day for the opportunity to see one of the world’s best, if one of the most unusual, bowlers on the planet operating at full throttle. His return of 5 for 32 from 9.4 overs was a performance I shall certainly remember for the rest of my life. I’m sure two thousand cricketing followers present on a memorable occasion, will have been equally impressed.
