Scots work hard against Warwickshire
There’s plenty of life in the old dog yet. Former captain Craig Wright once again demonstrated that he still has much to offer to the Saltires. In an excellent opening spell against the Warwickshire Bears, he not only sent Jonathan Trott and Ian Bell - both, of course, England caps - back to the pavilion, but conceded a meagre 28 runs from his ten overs.
Once more, with the Saltires’ injury and unavailability list restricting the choice of opening bowlers, Wright had to take the new ball. Later, he was to show that he can also still bat with verve.
On winning the toss, Gavin Hamilton had no hesitation in asking the visitors to bat. Reward followed swiftly as, with only his second ball, Wright found the edge of Trott’s bat and Glenn Rogers took the catch at slip. Bell had shown why he remains on the fringe of the England team with a fluent cover drive in the game’s opening over, but thereafter got rather bogged down.
The England player was next to go, well held by Jan Stander at deep mid off, Wright again the bowler. But Tim Ambrose and Jamie Troughton raised the hundred, with Troughton going to 50 from 94 balls. Ambrose was next to go through a good catch by Fraser Watts at deep square leg, Jan Stander the bowler. Glenn Rogers in particular was putting the brakes on the Bears’ innings. Hammy had given him a five strong leg-side field and asked him to concentrate his attack on middle and leg. By the thirtieth over they had reached only 112 with three wickets down.
Ryan Watson made it an all-spin attack and together they continued to apply the pressure, so much so that now Westwood stepped back to give himself room and gave Hammy a simple catch at shortish cover. Rogers completed a very useful spell, conceding 47 runs off his ten overs. The Bears declared their Power Play at the fortieth over, but the Saltires struck an immediate blow by yorking Rikki Clarke with the first ball and then removing Troughton for 77, a marked contrast in fortunes compared with Friday’s Power Play!
Indeed, only 21 runs were conceded this time compared with the disastrous 67 on Friday. The 200 came up in the 48th over, but a final disastrous over from Drummond saw the Bears surge to 242 for 6. A bouncer which went for 4 (counting six wides) was followed by a further six from the bat of Anthony Botha and, as the innings closed, 25 had come from the final over and 47 from his last three as, between them, Botha and Barker added a rapid 76 in an unbroken seventh wicket stand.
Watts was quickly into his stride when the Saltires began their response, soon finding the cover boundary and punishing the Irish Colossus, six foot eight inches tall Boyd Rankin, when he bowled two front foot no balls, each free hit yielding further fours. He survived a straightforward drop at slip but failed to profit as the much-vaunted Christopher Woakes grabbed a return catch from a leading edge, when he had reached 20.
Ryan Watson looked in he mood, first cutting and then driving successive fours, but his joy was short-lived as he played all round a Barker in-swinger to be bowled. Now it was the Scots turn to be bogged down as Clarke bowled very straight in a niggardly spell. Cameron Borgas could not get the ball through the field and was once fortunate to be given a life when Bell at cover dropped a hard chance before the Australian had got off the mark.
The introduction of New Zealand off-spinner Patel soon led to the departure of Hamilton, who had worked hard for his 30 runs. His demise, however, came from the dreaded reverse sweep, swept literally into the hands of Rankin just behind square. The sweep is a shot that Neil McCallum likes to play and he celebrated his arrival at the wicket with one typical shot of that ilk.
Now came an incident which may well have served to upset the Saltires batsmen at a key point just when it seemed they were getting on top. A Warwickshire supporter, doubtless fuelled by large quantities of amber nectar and egged on by his companions, ran on to the pitch and filched a bail. The ease with which he evaded the security people was frankly ridiculous – even worse than Scotland’s catching on Friday – the culprit finally escaping over the wall.
The delay in finding a replacement bail may well have broken the batsmen’s concentration, but in any event McCallum immediately perished, sweeping to be caught at square leg. There followed the domino effect as Stander and then Simon Smith departed cheaply. Borgas followed almost immediately, after a disappointing innings of 35 which occupied 84 balls. An interruption for rain saw two overs lost and the target amended to 238 from 48 overs.
Wright certainly gave it a go with a succession of lusty blows which included the first six of the innings, but he lost Drummond, who failed to profit from a let-off which saw him caught off a no ball by hitting a full toss down Bell’s throat. Wright was finally out controversially when he lofted Clarke it seemed over the midwicket boundary, only to see Trott claim a catch. The spectators in that part of the ground indicated hat the fielder had crossed the boundary but the ex-skipper had to go with 28 to his name.
The end was rather ignominious as Nel was run out by a direct hit from Woakes as the Scots lost by 50 runs. At times the Saltires were well on top of their county opponents, but the late flurry of runs by the visitors plus yet another mid-order collapse were the turning points and something for Pete Steindl and Hammy to work on. There were however, several plus points and one of them was certainly evident in the captaincy. We look forward to further improvement against Kent and Somerset.
