ICC Intercontinental Cup and Shield

CANADA v SCOTLAND The final of the first ICC Intercontinental Cup was a disappointment with Scotland securing a surprisingly easy victory in two days. Having disposed of a weakened Kenya in the semi-finals, they completely outplayed a Canadian side, still without John Davison and Ashish Bagai. Canada were further handicapped during the match by an injury to Sunil Dhaniram who retired after bowling two balls of his fifth over; he attempted to bat, coming in at No. 10 in the second innings, but had to give up after facing only six balls. On a pitch favouring pace bowling, it is doubtful if Dhaniram’s left-arm spin would have made much difference but he might have been expected to contribute more with the bat. Ian Billcliff chose to bat on winning the toss but probably regretted his decision as Scotland’s all-pace attack gave a highly professional display of line, length and swing bowling. John Blain trapped Asif Mulla and Don Maxwell leg-before and Asim Butt accounted for Zubin Surkari. Only Billcliff showed the skill needed to thwart an attack which grew ever more threatening but no one was able to accompany him for long. His colleagues all struggled to get bat on ball and when they did it was invariably a snick to one of the in-fielders. Coming in at 24 for 2, Billcliff was finally defeated by Ryan Watson on 101 for eight, having resisted for just over two hours. Watson ensured that, with the exception of Umar Bhatti, the tail collapsed as easily as the middle order in an impressive spell of 4.1-3-1-3. Scotland lost Fraser Watts with the score on 13 to a controversial catch by Billcliff on what might have been a bump-ball. Doug Lockhart and Cedric English added 40 for the second wicket but the partnership ended when English misjudged a ball from the spinner Kevin Sandher and offered a return catch. The Canadian bowlers failed to extract the same help from the pitch that aided Scotland earlier in the day as Lockhart and Gavin Hamilton put on 101 before Lockhart gave a catch to the wicketkeeper to end a patient innings of 64 made at a strike rate of 41.0. Watson kept Hamilton company to the close giving Scotland a 70-run lead with seven wickets in hand. The fourth-wicket partnership, worth 26 not out overnight, was extended to 118 on the second morning with Hamilton composing a classy century before becoming the first of Umar Bhatti’s four victims; his 115 contained 11 fours and was compiled at a strike rate of 59.89. After his dismissal, Scotland lost their next five wickets for 15 runs. Perhaps encouraged by the effectiveness of Umar Bhatti’s swinging left-arm deliveries, Craig Wright opted to declare. But not even he could have foreseen what was to follow. Blain and Asim Butt bowled exceptionally well with pace and movement to which Canada had no answer. The batting capitulated as five wickets went down for 14 runs and eight wickets for 24. Dhaniram added one run to the total before being forced to admit that his injury was too severe to continue. Umar Bhatti and Ashish Patel then restored some Canadian pride by adding 68 runs in 67 minutes for the last wicket. Despite this, Canada’s total was the lowest in the competition so far. John Blain received the Man-of-the-Match award for his match analysis of seven for 55, his consistency across two innings taking priority over the performance of Asim Butt whose four wickets for 10 runs instigated the chaos of Canada’s second innings. 44 ICC Intercontinental Cup 2004