Two splendid wins for Scots in northern India

Peter Ross reports from India on the latest adventures of Scotland's U19s, both on and off the field, on their pre-season tour...

Despite losing both of our opening matches, the team displayed - in patches - some excellent one-day skills. However, our ability to be consistently excellent was lacking. Our next chance to put this right was a couple of days away, which gave us an opportunity to experience the beautifully scenic town of Mussoorie, 6000 feet up in the foothills of the Himalayan mountains.

After a very "exciting" car journey up the sickeningly winding roads, we arrived at Mussoorie, where we were allowed to do a bit of sightseeing, as well as soak up the culture from the streets, stalls and locals (pictured right: Gavin Main, Matthew Cross and Peter Legget in traditional Maharajas' clothing). We also took a cable car up Gun Hill for some spectacular views of the area. This allowed Pete Legget to continue his bid - successfully - to conquer his phobia of heights! We than travelled to the spectacular Jaypee Resort, where our host Eshwaran treated us to a magnificent meal whilst we watched the first of the World Cup semi-finals.

Having safely arrived back at the cricket academy after the previous day's excursions, we were back in the regime of training and practicing. The decision to stay at the Academy here in Dehradun did mean we were unable to travel to Chandigarh as planned for the second semi-final (although the fact it was India v Pakistan meant we had no chance of getting tickets anyway!).
However, it didn't feel like we missed too much as Eshy rigged up a giant projector and converted the Abhimanyu cricket ground into a viewing area for a couple of hundred guests to watch the match. An Indian win saw the supporters going wild , and dancing and fireworks ensued until well after midnight. In fact, a few of the boys in our squad managed to make an appearance in a local paper for their partying after the match - nothing controversial though (pictured top: Gavin Main, Scott McElnea, Kyle Smith and Henry Edwards celebrating with the locals after India's semi final victory)!

After a light training session on the morning of the 31st, we started our third match of the tour, and our second day / night match under the floodlights. Having won the toss and elected to bat, our innings was dominated by two sensational one-day innings. Ross McLean (115) and Freddie Coleman (103), pictured left, came together in the seventh over and put on 175 for the third wicket, which along with some good late order hitting enabled us to post a more than competitive 309 for 5 from our 50 overs.

The bowling and fielding was fairly decent, although there is still room for improvement. In the end, Scotland were comfortable winners on D/L when the floodlights failed with five overs of the second innings remaining.

Match 4 started early the next morning, and again Scotland won the toss and batted first. In this 40-over game, we got off to a rocky start and after 22 overs we were struggling on 71 for 5. However, a gutsy innings by Aman Bailwal (49) ensured that he and Coleman put on 77 for the sixth wicket, and some late-order hitting again helped us post a commanding 188 for 9. Nick Farrar then took his maiden Scotland "five for", bowling straight and on a good length, and the opposition were dismissed for 107, making it two wins in a row for the U19s, and two much improved performances.

It is encouraging to see such an improvement already and, with only five days of the tour remaining, one can only hope that we continue to progress as we have done in the past week or so.

• Match 2 (Day/Night match under floodlights)

Dehradun District XI - 195 all out (S McElnea 3 for 38, Aman Bailwal 3 for 31, Priyanshu 94, Abhimanyu 53); Scotland - 79 all out (M Cross 25no, Nipun 3 for 5)
Dehradun District won by 116 runs

• Match 3

Scotland - 309 for 6 (R McLean 115, F Coleman 103, P Ross 38no, Parasanjeet 3 for 47); Abhimanyu Academy - 215 for 8 (P Sadler 2 for 9, N Farrar 2 for 44, Chandela 100no)
Match abandoned due to floodlight failure - Scotland win on D/L

• Match 4

Scotland - 188 for 9 (A Bailwal 49, F Coleman 36, Shubham 5 for 22); Doon Academy - 107 all out (N Farrar 5 for 18, T McBride 2 for 19, R McLean 2 for 20)
Scotland won by 81 runs