Scots not in tune with Ireland test

Scotland lost their opening game of WCQ2009 to Ireland by seven wickets.

Scotland had a disastrous start to their defence of the ICC Trophy when they lost the opening match of the World Cup Qualifying tournament i n Johannesburg by seven wickets. The Scots were rocked by the news that John Blain was suffering acute tendonitis in his bowling arm elbow, and would be unable to play.

But an early collapse to 24-4 in the Scotland innings was followed by a rousing fightback led by Neil McCallum, who was still at the crease when the innings closed, 121 not out from 138 balls. It was a heroic performance that deserved an inspired performance in the field. But Ireland's captain, William Porterfield, led his side to a comfortable win with a century of his own.

Ireland won the toss and unsurprisingly put the Scots in on a pitch that was always going to have something in it for the bowlers. As it happened, although the ball skidded through, it was tghe swing that undid the early Scots batters, three catches being snapped up in the slips.

Nevertheless it was a disappointing start by Scotland's top order, with Gavin Hamilton clean bowled by the tall Boyd Rankin, followed by Ryan Watson to the same bowler. Navdeep Poonia and Colin Smith gave catches to Andre Botha at second slip. But Kyle Coetzer had got his head down while all around him were losing theirs.

At last he found a partner that was for hanging around, as Neil McCallum came in at the fall of the fourth wicket and the two enjoyed a promising partnership of 34 until Coetzer clipped one straight to Eoin Morgan at mid-wicket.

That brought Craig Wright to the crease - in  an entirely different role from the warm-up match against Kenya when he and McCallum matched each other stroke foir stroke. This time, Wright contented himself with holding an end up while McCallum set about consolidating and accelerating the innings. Along the way McCallum was dropped twice, both easy enough chances, and he made the most of his three lives.

Their partnership yielded 86 runs, and lasted 20 overs, by which time McCallum was into six-hit mode, adding 50 in the final five overs for a very creditable 232 for seven wickets.

The Irish were not in the mood to be impressed.as Porterfield and Wilon got off to a brisk start against Dewald Nel and Calum MacLeod. The latter demolished Wilson's stumps in the eighth over, but the score was already 43, and that only brought in Eoin Morgan.

Porterfield upped the aggression, and took four boundaries from Craig Wright's opening over of half-volley.

The next wickets didn't fall until the 27th over, when Morgan tried one reverse sweep too many against Ryan Watson's round-the-wicket off-spin, and was bowled for 60.

Porterfield proceeded apace, and reached his century off 87 balls, with the score 195 for two and the game effectively over. Wright soon after got his revenge by bowling Wright through the gap, and that was more-or-less that.

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