Durham v Scotland, friendly 14th April 2006

consolation 60no
By Daniel Fullard
April 14 2006

Well, the second game against the Scots ended in defeat for Durham. After batting first we reached 197, which the Scots beat inside 47 overs. An enjoyable days cricket nonetheless and it was only our second string team...

Indeed the Durham team was very different to yesterday with only Davies, Mustard, Breese and Bridge playing both games. Lowe and Stoneman opened with Breese and Ben Harmison following and add to that Mustard and Bridge for out first 6 and Gary Park also got a bat. The Scotland team was it’s the strongest they have got bringing in the excellent Paul Hoffman and the ever dependable Gavin Hamilton to boost a side already with the highly skilled bowlers Wright and Watson and Stanger and Lockhart who got a 13 yesterday.

Durham got off to the worst possible start dropping to 14-2 with Stoneman going for 6 and number 3 Breese going for a duck, both taken by the excellent but sometimes costly Craig Wright. James Lowe batted well and he and Ben Harmison were going steady but Ben was gone for 31 (bowled by Maiden) and we were at an awful 54-3 and things continued to get worse as James Lowe who was very impressive went out for 36 (Caught Behind) leaving the team down to 83-4 and only a few balls later Mustard was dismissed for 15 and at 95-5 with a second string team against some top bowling today we were in trouble.

And who saved us from an even more heavy defeat? Bridge. He looked steady away and got to 60 not out and played some marvellous shots and was very troubled. Ass to that a slow burning 42 from Garry Park, who looked good too, and we were left with a 197 total.

Scotland’s attack was superb today and this was their strongest line up I believe. Wright on his day is a marvel but he seems to have the odd double figure over in the early overs which sometimes ruins his figures. Watson is a great little bowler but Hoffman has our batsmen in bits and it’s a shame he didn’t get a wicket to show for his effort. Weerantha isn’t a very good bowler at all and for the second day running Lyons started well with only 7 runs from his first 4 overs but then did the same as yesterday and gave away big runs in his latter overs.

Anyway Scotland’s bowling figures……

Hoffman 10-2-37-0
Wright 10-1-32-3
Maiden 10-0-30-1
Watson 10-3-42-1
Lyons 8-1-37-0
Weerantha 2-0-17-0

Then onto the Scotland innings with the bat and after a shaky start, loosing the 102 not out star of yesterday for Lockhart for only 4 runs. But then they started to build an innings and even though the other half of that 143-partnership from yesterday, Stagner, was out for 17, leaving the Scots 45-2, soon 50-3 when Ryan Watson went for 22 after playing some pearlers including the shot of the day with a smashing drive for Six. But then Fraswer Watts and Colin Smith put on a match winning partnership and with 68 and 36 respectively took the side to 162-5. Gavin Hamilton came in got a fabulous 21 and was dispatched by Breese and he and captain Wright played excellent chasing Cricket picking up singles of most balls and simply hitting and running to get nearer that total. Nice tactical play in the end from Scotland and Fraser Watts continues to shine.

But our Bowling left a lot to be desired and whilst 198 isn’t a bad total to concede there was no bite, no real pressure and in the end it cost us. Killen (9-1-3-34-2) had a decent day and was looking frightfully fast as was the impressive Mark Turner (6-0-24-1). Ben Harmison too looked like he could prove dangerous (6-0-18-1) and Davies again didn’t look too threatening (6-0-29-1). I like the look of young Barrick who is a tidy spin bowler (6-0-23-0) and the usual spinners did okay I suppose but Im still not convinced they will be able to cut it at the top level. Breese was 8-0-29-1 and Bridge 5-2-35-1

The truth our bowlers were not good enough and should have dispatched of the tail enders and won the game but all credit to Scotland and they deserved the win and as I said yesterday, with the likes of Hoffman, Wright, Lockhart, Stanger, Watson and Wright they will surprise a few teams this season for sure.