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Ireland International Matches
Scotland drew with Ireland
Intercontinental Cup, Aberdeen, 17 August 2006
Scorecard
Derek Scott

McCallum is lbw
There was no play on the last two days due to a deluge late at night on the second day. The pitch and ground never recovered as the water got under all the covers and there was no sun or wind on the last two days to assist in a drying process. Ireland won the toss and sent Scotland in and had them 161-7 but Scotland recovered to 265 all out. This gave Scotland a 91 lead when Ireland were subsequently bowled out for 174 after being 129-2. In the final phase of possible play on day two Ireland hit back to have Scotland 24-4. Scotland now led by 115 runs with six wickets in hand and two days to go. The match looked as though it could have been very interesting.

This draw could mean that Ireland's match against UAE in February could be a dead match if Scotland beat UAE, and that match will be played before Ireland's match against UAE. Johnston returned to captain the Irish team. Other changes since the match at Lords on the previous Tuesday were O'Brien, to keep wicket, and Botha, though still unable to bowl, in for Carroll, K. O'Brien and Wilson. McCallan was now playing his 34th match in succession, stretching back to 2004. Gillespie was playing his 25th match in succession. Scotland had two changes since their European Cup Match against Ireland two weeks previously. Poonia and Hussain gave way to Watts and Hamilton. The latter had played one Test Match but was now playing club cricket in Scotland.

The Scottish first innings could be split into three parts. After 16 overs, Scotland were 62 for four with Watts, MacRae, Hamilton and Brown all out. They had scored 27 runs between them with MacRae's 15 the highest score of the four. Phase 2 saw McCallum join number three Watson in a fifth wicket stand of 62 in just over 21 overs. When that stand was broken at 124, the score went to 161 for 7, 10 overs later. Then Blain came in at number nine. He scored 53 and, helped by Wright, 28, and number 11 Lyons, 16, the last three wickets put on 104. The innings lasted 79.2 overs and just under five hours. No chances were missed but although Ireland's seven bowlers only give up three runs per over it must be said that the standard of bowling was not very good on a helpful pitch. Easily the best was Langford-Smith's 5-65 in 20 overs. The only expensive bowler of the seven was P Mooney whose nine overs cost 50

Langford-Smith took 5 for 65
Johnston's first over to Watts was a maiden but he had Watts out in his second over. He was caught by O'Brien from a leg glance. 3-1-0. Watson glanced his first ball for four and snicked a four in the sixth over. MacRae took two fours off Johnston, one a snick. Then, in over 10, MacRae pushed forward at Langford-Smith and was bowled. 27-2-50. The left-handed Hamilton was next. His score of 10 included two fours, both off Langford-Smith, but he was out in the 12th over four balls after his second four which had just evaded White at gully. Hamilton played a push out and was caught at first slip. 43-3-10. Brown came next and got two runs, scored off the ball before he was out, out of 19 added with Watson who hit P Mooney for three fours in Mooney's first over, the 15th, to bring up 50. Then, in Langford-Smith's eighth over, Brown snicked to the wicketkeeper. 62-4-2. The arrival of McCallum brought Ireland's early success to an end. In 12 further overs up to lunch Scotland scored 42 more runs. 35 of these were scored by Watson while McCallum faced 35 balls and scored two! J Mooney replaced Langford-Smith, 9-3-23-3, and Watson drove three boundaries in Mooney's first four balls before Mooney bowled his next two overs as maidens to McCallum. In between these Watson hit four fours in over 23 off P Mooney, two pulls, a drive and one uppish shot to third man. The second four brought Watson to 52 off 69 balls and 48 had come by means of 12 boundaries.

Johnston replaced P Mooney for over 25. Watson had a lucky escape when he snicked the fourth ball just too high for O'Brien. Watson's 15th four off J Mooney in over 26 was a snick which brought 100 up. The lunch score, after 28 overs, was 104-4, Watson 66, McCallum 2. Eight overs after lunch advanced the score to only 123. These overs were bowled by Johnston and J Mooney. The fifth wicket fell in over 27 when Langford-Smith, running in from in the deep fine leg boundary, took a wonderful tumbling catch to dismiss Watson off a mistimed hook off Johnston. 124-5-74. Watson faced 111 balls and all but 10 of his runs came in fours. Smith joined McCallum and 24 were put on in six overs, both batsman hitting two fours.

Spin was introduced for the first time went McCallan came on for over 43. It brought a wicket at once. The sixth ball got McCallum lbw as he played back and the ball turned. 148-6-25. Ultimately McCallum had faced 83 balls for his 25. With Wright in 150 was up in over 44. Then McCallan had Smith stumped in his third over. The ball popped a little and O'Brien scooped it up near the ground and stumped Smith. 161-7-17. The question now was could Ireland press home their current advantage. The answer was "no". In came Blain and in 20 overs with Wright 46 runs were put on for the eighth wicket. 16 overs were bowled up to tea for 30 runs. Both batsmen played carefully and in this period five maidens were bowled as Ireland switched bowlers frequently. The tea score, after 62 overs, was 191 for seven. Blain was 10 and Wright 21.

Andre Botha plays and misses
Bray was given four overs after tea for 11 runs but it was Langford-Smith who took the eighth wicket. 200 was up in over 64. Three overs later Wright was out. He hit a back foot stroke high to McCallan at mid-off. 207-8-28. Wright had faced 66 balls. Two overs later Ireland must have thought the innings was virtually over. Hoffmann stepped back and carved the ball high to White at mid-on. 221-9-6. The innings, however, was far from over. It lasted another 10 overs and saw another 44 runs scored. Ireland used four bowlers in this period. Lyons faced 33 balls in scoring 16 while Blain, with three balls less, scored 27. Two fours to Blain in Johnston's 20th and last over brought up 250. In over 78, bowled by J Mooney, Blain, with a three, went to 52 in 90 balls with nine fours. Two overs later he was out caught on the legside by Bray off J Mooney. His 53 in 94 balls saved the Scottish innings from what would have been a low score in a four-day match. In the entire innings 40 fours were hit so 160 out of 265 runs came in boundary fours.

Ireland used seven bowlers and 79 overs were bowled by Langford-Smith, 5-65, and Johnston, 2-72. Perhaps more use could have been made of the slow bowlers. Indeed White had only two overs and Bray's four overs after tea remains a mystery. Langford-Smith took five wickets in an innings for the first time and thus carried his wicket total to 30 in 15 innings bowled in this his debut season. He began badly taking seven wickets for 222 in his first eight innings bowled. His next seven matches yielded 23 wickets for 284 runs. This was six successive three wicket hauls followed by the five wicket haul in this innings.

Ireland used the light roller and began their innings at 5.15 p.m. 96 overs were ordained for the first three days. Scotland used 80 and two were subtracted for the change of innings. This left 24 overs to be bowled in the day but rain prevented any further play after 14 overs. By that time Ireland were 43-1. They reached in 41 in nine overs and scored only two runs in the last five overs of the day. Hoffmann and Brown were the bowlers to Porterfield and Bray. Porterfield cut a four to mid-wicket and square cut another in Hoffmann's second over. With a square drive and cut wide of covers left-hand Bray had two fours in Brown's second over. Bray was out, caught second slip, in Brown's next over. 28-1-13. Botha came in and hit two fours and that virtually ended scoring for the day. At the close the score was 43-1, Porterfield 19 and Botha 9.

The second day was as dark and gloomy as the first but by a miracle there was little rain. In the first 11 overs the second wicket pair raised the score to 78. Blain and Hamilton started the bowling and Ireland's 50 came in over 21. Play started 15 minutes late due to heavy rain and there was a further 20 minute delay after two overs. In overs 21, 22 and 23, Botha hit three fours and Porterfield one. Brown came on for Hamilton. In his second over, the 26th, Botha played a crude waft and was caught at second slip. 78-2-35. O'Brien came in and there was a quiet period to lunch. 100 came in over 32 and lunch came after 34 overs. The score at lunch was 108-1, Porterfield 42, O'Brien 14. In nine overs after lunch 21 runs were scored and this was Ireland's high point of the innings, 129-2.

A square drive from Niall O'Brien

Sadly from this point the remaining eight wickets fell in 21 overs for 45 runs. O'Brien prodded out at Brown in over 45 and was caught at the wicket. 129-3-28. Two balls later, the first ball of Hamilton's next over, Porterfield played an expansive shot and was caught at second slip. With 48 to his name, and the recent loss of O'Brien, he should have been more careful. 129-4-48. Porterfield scored his 48 in 129 balls. White joined Gillespie but the latter had a terrible nibble at Blain in the latter's second over back and was caught at the wicket. 136-5-3. McCallan then came and now took place the only stand of more than seven in the last seven wickets. This stand was 30 in just under 12 overs. Both played carefully. 150 was up in over 54 and McCallan was missed at slip off Blain when six with the score at 155. For Scotland it was not expensive. Wright, who had bowled two overs earlier, came back for Blain, over 61, and had McCallan caught at the wicket off a terrible "flash". 166-6-13. Tea was taken at the fall of this wicket with White on 21.

Wright had two balls left in his over. Johnston took a single off the first and White was caught at second slip off the second. 167-7-21. Two more wickets fell for the addition of one run. Brown came back for Hoffmann. Johnston took a single and J Mooney offered no stroke to the first ball he faced and was lbw. 168-8-0. Without addition, Johnston played on in Wright's next over. 168-9-2. Langford-Smith got the remaining six runs of the innings before, in over 65, P Mooney prodded a catch to the wicketkeeper. It was a sorry collapse and give Scotland a 91 run lead. More importantly, it gave Scotland six points for first-innings lead which was vital, given the weather meant that the match could well end in a draw. Scotland used five bowlers to bowl 65 overs at a rate of 2.67 runs per over. Brown's 5-37 came in 19.2 overs while in Wright's five overs he took 3-14

The ground staff chill out
When Scotland began again 42 overs were scheduled before the close of play. This innings began at 4.30 p.m. and bad light brought the day's play to an end at 5.30 after only 12 of the scheduled 42 overs had been bowled. It had been gloomy all day but the light was now better than when Ireland batted. Scotland were losing wickets rapidly in these 12 overs and the batsmen were all the time hinting to the umpires regarding the bad light. After several consultations between the umpires, they finally gave way and, as it transpired, the match ended at that point. Watts took a single off Johnston's first ball and MacRae hit a boundary to extra cover off the second. The first ball of the second over, bowled by Langford-Smith, accounted for Watts who was caught at square short cover. 5-1-1. Watson joined McRae and in 33 balls Scotland scored only seven runs, four of them from another boundary to MacRae. Then Johnston took a wicket in his fourth, fifth and sixth overs. At 12, MacRae was caught at the wicket and at 17 a similar fate befell Watson and it must be said that considerable doubt surrounded both decisions. The dismissal of Watson gave O'Brien his 50th dismissal (45 ct 5 st) in his 25th match for Ireland. At 23 Hamilton was lbw on the back foot and Scotland were 23-4. McCallum joined Brown and survived a very confident appeal for another wicket-keeping catch before the end came at 24-4, Brown 2 and McCallum 0.

While this ended the match, it didn't end all matters related to the match. Subsequent to the end of the match a charge was laid against Niall O'Brien, the Irish wicket-keeper, for foul and abusive language towards the groundsman and his staff. He was found guilty of this offence by the match referee, David Dukes, and banned for one Intercontinental Match. This means he will not be eligible to play against UAE next year. In addition, charges were also laid, at a lesser level, against Irish captain Trent Johnston, Scottish captain Craig Wright and Scottish coach Peter Drinnen. The charge against Wright was dismissed. Drinnen and Johnston were each given a reprimand, and, in addition, Johnston was warned as to his future conduct.

This brought an end to 2006. In 17 matches played by Ireland, six were won, three drawn and eight lost. A trophy, this time the European Championships, was won for the first time since 1996. The scorer of most runs was newcomer, Porterfield with 325. His average of 36.11 was also the best. Langford-Smith, another newcomer, got most wickets, 31, by a margin of seven over Johnston. Of those with 10 or more wickets, Langford-Smith's average of 16.45 was some six runs per wicket ahead of second placed Johnston.