ICC Intercontinental Cup and Shield

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES v SCOTLAND After their humiliation in their previous Intercontinental Cup match in Namibia, the United Arab Emirates showed a return to form back in their home environment. It was Scotland who found the conditions alien, as their players moved from a Scottish winter to a somewhat warmer one on the coast of the Persian Gulf. John Blain got Scotland off to a useful start moving the new ball sufficiently to find the edge of the bats of both Emirates’ openers. Douglas Lockhart, keeping wicket instead of Colin Smith who had an injured back, picked up the catches. That was the extent of Scottish success, however, until after the tea interval, as, on a flat pitch, Gayan Silva and Saqib Ali occupied the crease whilst slowly adding 140. Although there was no assistance from the wicket for the bowlers, its slowness made run-scoring far from easy, so that all Scotland’s bowlers achieved economical figures. Eight bowlers were used because of the heat but they were let down by some poor catching as the fielders failed to adjust to the desert light; five relatively straightforward chances were missed. Ryan Watson eventually removed Gayan Silva, a third catch for Lockhart, whereupon Khurram Khan raised the scoring rate, he and Saqib putting on 109 runs to place the Emirates in a strong position at the close of the first day. Scotland were a transformed side on day two as Blain and Paul Hoffman exploited the fallibility of the Emirates’ batsmen against aggressive pace bowling. Dougie Brown accounted for two of the lower order as the Emirates lost their last seven wickets for 60 runs. In contrast to the first day, Scotland held all their catches, Lockhart picking up three more to take his tally to six, the second-most by a Scottish wicketkeeper in first-class cricket behind James Brown’s seven victims (4c 3st) against Ireland at Dublin in 1957. Fraser Watts and Lockhart began well with a first-wicket stand of 57 before both were dismissed in quick succession. When Ryan Watson departed with the score on 118, the match looked evenly poised but Gavin Hamilton and Neil McCallum played confidently, taking Scotland to within 169 runs of their opponent’s first-innings total with seven wickets remaining. McCallum dominated the morning of the third day, reaching his maiden first-class hundred. The fourth-wicket partnership with Hamilton ended when the latter edged Ali Asad to the wicketkeeper after they had added 83. Useful contributions from Brown and Craig Wright helped take the total to 327 before McCallum’s innings ended. He worked hard for his 109 runs since only 18 of them came in boundaries. His ability to judge quick singles tested the Emirates’ fielders and enabled him to attain a strike rate of 61.2. His effort put Scotland in sight of first-innings lead and some spirited batting by Ross Lyons and Hoffmann finally achieved it. Ahmed Nadeem was the most impressive of the bowlers and his five-wicket return was a deserved reward for just over 30 overs of well-directed pace. Mohammad Iqbal and Arshad Ali soon restored the advantage to the Emirates as they opened with a partnership of 63 runs, Mohammad Iqbal being the first to fall after hitting seven fours and two sixes in a bullying 43 runs at a strike rate of 119.4. Gayan Silva and Arshad Ali then batted carefully to the close, by which time the Emirates had a 132-run lead. The expectation for the fourth day was that the Emirates would score as many runs as possible in the morning before declaring and then attempt to bowl Scotland out in two sessions of play. However, this was not to be. Even though Arshad Ali, Gayan Silva and Saqib Ali were untroubled by the Scottish bowlers, they never raised the strike-rate beyond 60 and scored few boundaries. Indeed, Gayan Silva failed to reach the boundary in his 87 runs. After lunch the batsmen became even more defensive and the declaration did not come until 40 minutes before tea, leaving Scotland to score 332 runs in only 46 overs. For reasons which remain obscure, the objective seemed to be to prevent Scotland winning rather than going for victory. Scotland needed to win, however, if they wanted to head the group and make the competition final. They opened the batting with Hoffmann, who struck four fours and three sixes in a partnership of 59 with Watts. His strike rate was 150.0 but he fell two runs short of a half-century. Wickets fell quickly as Scotland tried to maintain the momentum but after half the side were out for 85, it was time to play for a draw. 106 ICC Intercontinental Cup 2006-07