FAVOURITES SCOTS JOLT CANADA
By Blarnee Stoned
Exclusive to CanadaCricketOnline
Bangor, Northern Ireland:
Scotland, losers to Canada in the 2001 ICC Trophy third place playoffs, showed how much they have improved with a comprehensive seven wicket win over Canada on a chilly, windy but no more challenging day than one in late September at King City.
But it wasn't as clear-cut a win as it looks on paper.
Scottish hearts were in their mouths after Canada's newly-minted opening bowler Don Maxwell produced two prodigious outswingers to remove two batsmen with the first two deliveries of their innings, one to an amazing catch at point by Zubin Surkari, soaring like a pole vaulter without the pole to snatch the ball after it had seemingly gone past him.
With two wickets gone without a run on the board Canada's modest total of 189-8 began to look problematic. When Umar Bhatti, included in the team for the expensive spinner Kevin Sandher, induced former England one-Test wonder Gavin Hamilton to drag one onto his stumps, there was deathly silence in the glen as the tournament favourites were still more than 140 runs adrift with three batsmen in the hut. But this was not a day when Canada got any breaks.
For starters, Canada lost the toss on a day when any skipper would have inserted the opposition. Then the umpires conferred - and turned down - a bat-pad catch from Hamilton that wicketkeeper Pubudu Dassanayake, running and diving, appeared to the naked eye to have been cleanly gloved at foward short leg. Maxwell, too, had been adjudged lbw to one that struck him on the thigh just when he looked ready to launch an late-order assault on the Scottish bowling.
The real kick in the gut came just when the decisive 150 run partenership between wicketkeeper Colin Smith and opener Fraser Watts got started. Both batsmen found themselves at the same end. Dassanayake's throw to bowler George Codrington who broke the wicket appeared to have caught Smith short of his ground but the umpire ruled otherwise. The former Sri Lankan Test 'keeper could be faulted, however, for underarming the ball with his glove on, instead of throwing it with the glove off, an error that may have slowed the ball enough for the batsman to get the benefit of whatever doubt there may have been.
That was as close a whiff of victory as Canada got.
Skipper John Davison rung the bowling changes, using all six bowlers. But it was all in vain. The batsmen took few chances and the Canadian ground fielding deteriorated.
Canada's 189-8 was due in the main to an attacking knock of 37 by Sunil Dhaniram, a slow 36 not out (67 balls) by Dassanayake and two lusty contributions from Sanjay Thuraisingham (26 off a mere nine balls) and George Codrington (17 off eight balls).
Davison (11) and Ian Billcliff (8), who have been the rock of the Canadian batting so far, didn't get going for once and the three specialist batsmen----Desmond Chumney ( a duck off 12 balls) and Surkari ( a dodgy 8 off 49 balls) caught off airborne cut shots and the completely out-of-sorts Haninder Dhillon ( bowled through the gate for 16 off 44 balls)---failed once again.
As a result, although Canada batted out the 50 overs, the pedestrian pace of the middle-order batsmen left little time for Maxwell, Thuraisingham, Codrington and Bhatti to really tuck into the bowling when weather conditions had improved.
Canada plays Oman on Monday. Oman is coached by the former Indian Test batsman Sandeep Patel who piloted Kenya to the semi-finals of the last World Cup and can't be taken lightly. But the big test comes on Tuesday against defending champions the Netherlands, coached by former Australian Test captain Bobby Simpson. The Dutch have carved up Papua New Guinea and Oman in their first two games, topping the 300 mark against the latter. This is a must-win game for Canada to have any real hope of getting into the semi-finals and an assured ticket to the 2007 World Cup.