ICC Intercontinental Cup and Shield

SCOTLAND v IRELAND On a moderately warm but dark and gloomy day, Trent Johnston asked Scotland to bat first. Ireland quickly established superiority, taking four wickets in sixteen overs whilst 58 runs were scored, the latter mainly due to the persistence of Ryan Watson. Neil McCallum stayed with him for the remaining 12 overs before lunch, scoring two runs off 35 balls, whilst Watson made an additional 42 to take his score to 66 and the team score to 104 for four. Eight overs after the interval, with 20 runs added, Watson, having been at the crease for two hours and twenty-four minutes, fell to a spectacular tumbling catch by David Langford-Smith, running in from the deep fine-leg boundary. Watson faced 111 balls for his 74 runs, made at a strike rate only 66.6, even though 64 of his runs came in boundaries. Ten overs later, Scotland had lost two more wickets for an additional 37 runs before John Blain led another revival, hitting 53 from 94 balls in partnerships of 46 for the eighth wicket with Colin Wright and 44 for the tenth wicket with Ross Lyons. Surprisingly, Ireland used seven bowlers in their effort to dismiss Scotland. The opening pair of Johnston and Langford-Smith did most of the damage, but Kyle McCallan got the ball to pop and turn in his ten overs of spin. Ireland reached 43 for the loss of Jeremy Bray after 14 overs, when rain prevented any further play for the day. The weather showed no improvement on the second day with play starting 15 minutes late due to heavy rain. Only two overs were possible, however, before further rain resulted in a 20-minute stoppage. William Porterfield, Andre Botha and Niall O’Brien all struggled in the conditions but they did better than mere survival, taking Ireland to 108 for two at lunch. Nine overs after the interval, at 129 for two, it looked as though Ireland would make a competitive reply but Dougie Brown and Wright restored Scotland’s advantage, aided by some rash strokes from the Irish batsmen. Exploiting the conditions well, they took the remaining eight wickets for only 45 runs to give the home side an impressive 91-run lead. Scotland began their second innings at 4.30 pm but, after only 12 overs, they were in severe trouble, having lost four wickets for 23 runs against Johnston and Langford-Smith. Throughout this period, the Scottish batsmen kept hinting to the umpires as strongly as possible about poor light, even though it did not seem to have deteriorated much from the period when Ireland were batting. The Irish were therefore unhappy when, after several consultations, the umpires decided in the batsmen’s favour and called a halt for the day with 30 overs still remaining. The Scots were also unhappy with some of the umpiring decisions and accused the Irish of pressurising the umpires with frequent appeals. Certainly there was considerable doubt about the dismissals of MacRae and Watson, both adjudged by Shahul Hameed as caught by the wicketkeeper, although another confident appeal for a catch behind against McCallum was rejected by Niels Bagh. The ill-temper between the two sides was exacerbated the following morning when play had to be abandoned after water had seeped under the covers during overnight rain. The Irish expressed their anger against the local ground staff for failing adequately to protect the pitch, more than half of which was damp. The umpires reported Niall O’Brien to the Match Referee for using foul and abusive language at Ken McCurdle, the groundsman, an offence for which he was found guilty and banned for one Intercontinental Cup match. The Irish captain, Trent Johnston, and Scotland’s coach, Peter Drinnen were also reprimanded for inappropriate behaviour. Given that nearly 21 mm of rain had fallen, some 44% of the total for August that year, much of it torrential in nature, the Match Referee took the view that, with that amount of water, it would have been virtually impossible to keep the pitch dry, no matter what precautions had been taken. Unfortunately, with cloudy conditions and temperatures reaching the upper teens (°C) at best, drying out was very slow and it was still not possible to restart play on the fourth day. The points allocation followed the regulations for a match in which more than eight hours of play are lost to bad weather. 96 ICC Intercontinental Cup 2006-07