Scotland’s Prospects

Scotland played a friendly on Thursday against MCC in a 50 over match in preparation for their 2011 Clydesdale Bank 40 campaign that starts on Sunday against Yorkshire. The first question that has to be asked is if it was in preparation for a 40 over competition then why was the format of the friendly a 50 over game, surely to gain maximum match preparation it would have been more beneficial to play the format that you are going to play.

To the game itself Scotland won the match at Lords by 4 wickets. Scotland will be delighted with the win and they most definitely got a contest during the game by the MCC who had players such as Mark Alleyne, Darren Bicknell, James Benning, Jamie Dalrymple and John Stephenson representing them. Ex Scotland captains Gavin Hamilton and Ryan Watson also represented the MCC.

MCC in their 50 overs scored 254-6 which was mainly due to 50’s from two of the young MCC players Mark Tomsett and Keith Wilkinson and then a hard hitting 65 from Mark Alleyne at the end of the innings. The big name players all failed with Hamilton scoring 21, Bicknell Retiring hurt early in his innings and James Benning only adding 1 before being bowled and Dalrymple being run out without troubling the score. It was a disappointing day for Dalrymple who to go with his duck was also expensive in his 5.5 overs which cost 42 runs which included two big sixes being hit off him.

Scotland’s bowling on the whole didn’t look all that threatening and the fielding in general was also poor and included numerous dropped catches, two in the space of a 5 minute period from Richie Berrington, both being very simple chances at mid wicket.

Scotland’s performance continued to disappoint as they slumped to 90-4 and you started to think that if they can’t beat a MCC team who’s bowling attack included Kevin Dean, former Derbyshire left arm seamer who is aged 35 and been retired from first class cricket since 2008 and John Stephenson who is 46 and is now working as the MCC Head of Cricket then what are their realistic opportunities in their upcoming Clydesdale Bank 40 campaign, at this stage it wasn’t looking promising.

This is where things started to look up for Scotland and a glimmer of hope for their summer prospects begun. Ewan Chalmers and Scotland’s Australian oversees player Luke Butterworth who was playing in his first game for Scotland shared a partnership of 130 which was the main reason for the eventual Scottish victory.

Luke Butterworth in particular looked a good prospect scoring a hard hitting 80 that included two big sixes hit into the top stand. The Tasmanian partner Ewan Chalmers was a perfect foil and looked a very good prospect scoring 109 and for Scotland to achieve any victories in future games will need these two in particular to carry on this form.

I believe that Chalmers will carry a lot of responsibilities onto his 21 year old shoulders and will need to contribute greatly as will Butterworth with the bat and ball. The bowling and fielding is still a concern and I will be surprised to see Scotland make much of an impact in this seasons competition but on the whole the Scottish team is made up of a lot of young and promising talent so the experience will do them the world of good and if Chalmers and Butterworth click again maybe a few surprises will occur.