Scotland Academy v Durham Academy 2010
National Academy v Durham Academy (Game 1 – 11th May 2010)
Although the wicket appeared as flat as is standard at Uddingston early morning May, conditions meant the National Academy weren’t overly disappointed when the Durham captain won the toss and chose to bat.
Opening bowlers Matthew Parker and Paddy Sadler started tightly but were unable to get the first breakthrough early on. The run rate pressure continued to grow when the change bowlers came on and Willie Rowan benefited from a tight spell of bowling when New Zealand u19 world cup wicket keeper Tom Latham gave him a straightforward caught and bowled to leave the visitors 71-1 just before drinks.
The run rate continued to falter, leaving the Durham batters a lot of work to do in the second half of their innings. Spinners Keith Morton and Scott Galloway bowled very tightly, responding well to aggression from the middle order and the wickets which had proved harder to come by early on began to fall regularly, further stunting the progress of the batting side.
By the time the seamers were re-introduced in to the attack the momentum had shifted back to the home side. Some very accurate death bowling, in particular by Willie Rowan, who bowled very well to end with figures of 5 for 37, meant that Durham couldn’t post anything better than their eventual 184 all out. The collapse from 120-1 showed the virtues of restricting your opponent as the pressure to score quick runs just became too much.
In reply Scotland went off at a far brisker pace than their opponents had done, with Oli Hairs in a typically aggressive mood. After he was bowled for 29 it was left to Tom McBride and Matthew Parker to bat the team to the verge of a winning position. Their 88-run partnership provided the backbone of the chase with both playing well, McBride for 50 and Parker 38.
As the victory target got closer a few more wickets were lost, perhaps making the score line seem a lot closer than it actually was. Eventually the 185 to win was achieved six down with 14 overs to spare, giving the National Academy a very good win against good opposition.
National Academy v Durham Academy (Match 2 – 12th May)
Match 2 saw two changes for the Academy – Michael Leask and Freddie Coleman came in to the side, replacing Fraser Burnett and Oli Hairs. Paddy Sadler this time won the toss and chose to bat, the conditions similar to the previous day.
Coleman was dismissed early and this brought Willie Rowan to the crease. He combined first with Tom McBride and then Scott Galloway to put Scotland in a good position at drinks. Rowan continued to bat well, going along at a brisk pace and despite the loss of five wickets the team were well placed going in to the last ten overs with Rowan and Marc Petrie at the crease.
Momentum was lost a little bit against the spin bowlers and wickets fell at regular intervals towards the end of the innings, including Rowan for a very well played 83, as Scotland ended up all out for a slightly disappointing 217. However, the evidence of the day before made this a very defendable target.
Despite both opening bowlers leaking a few boundaries at the outset of Durham’s chase, Paddy Sadler struck early to remove one of the openers. It was Safayan Sharif bowling first change who did the real damage. He combined good areas with the odd unplayable delivery and ripped the heart out of the visitors’ middle order with Durham reaching drinks seven wickets down and with their backs very much against the wall.
It very soon became a case of keeping the one established batsman and probably final hope off strike and attempting to bowl at the lower order. The bowlers showed very good patience as a few tight overs went by without wickets falling. It was the introduction of Keith Morton which induced an aggressive shot too many from one of the tail enders and he also accounted for Latham in a good spell of bowling.
It was left for Sharif to take the final wicket, finishing with terrific figures of 6 for 23 and in doing so confirming a second impressive win in two days for the academy side.
