Judd rues decision to bat first against Welsh

Monday 30 July 2012

THEY travelled to Cardiff in confident mood following last week's historic T20 victory over Bangladesh.

Saltires Richie Berrington is bowled by Jim Allenby. Picture: Donald MacLeod

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William Dick

However, Scotland were last night left to reflect on a sixth consecutive CB40 defeat and perhaps to rue their decision to bat first at the SWALEC Stadium.

It certainly looked as though stand-in captain Preston Mommsen picked the wrong option and a meagre total of 151-9 was never likely to be enough, especially with the Scottish bowlers unable to find consistency.

In the event, the Welsh Dragons coasted to an easy eight-wicket victory to leave the Saltires rooted to the bottom of Group B.Gareth Rees led the victory charge with a hard-hitting 60, though he was helped by some wayward bowling, especially from Gordon Goudie and Josh Davey, whose first over alone went for 17 runs.Richie Berrington did pick up a couple of wickets while Majid Haq bowled with his customary guile.Later, assistant coach Tony Judd admitted Scotland mis-read the pitch but backed the decision to bat first."It was a very difficult wicket," observed Judd. "It was slow and low and we didn't read it. We didn't expect it to be as slow and low as it was and there was obviously a lot of variable bounce, as well."Having said that, we had opportunities to certainly make a lot more runs than we did and that's disappointing."Judd added: "Looking at the pitch this morning, it was dry and had no grass, I would defy anyone not to say let's go and post a big total on here."We misread how bad the bounce was going to be but that would make me even more determined to bat first. It was only going to get worse – if we'd managed to post a decent total. You could see the way [Majid] Haq bowled that there was enough turn that 220 would probably have won you the game."Scotland had failed to build on a steady start from Davey and Calum MacLeod. They had reached 27 in the sixth over when Davey chased a wide one from Simon Jones and edged to keeper Mark Wallace.MacLeod then allowed frustration to get the better of him when he attempted to make room for a forcing shot only to be bowled by Jim Allenby.Goudie faced just one delivery which he drove into the hands of Stewart Walters at short cover.It was a measure of Scotland's toils that at the end of the first 12 overs they had managed just two boundaries off the bat with a further one contributed as overthrows.Their predicament merely intensified when Berrington was the second victim of Allenby's military medium seamers.Berrington had stroked one glorious boundary through the offside when he played across a straight one and departed for 6.Allenby delivered a further blow when he took a simple return catch to remove Jean Symes for 11 and, at 54-5, the Saltires were in disarray.Mommsen and Ewan Chalmers, a surprise choice in the starting XI, at least managed to steady the ship.However, their progress was painfully slow with Chalmers in particular struggling for his timing on what was his first top-flight outing since June 5. But at least the Watsonians man displayed durability in helping his captain add 70 for the sixth wicket.There were sporadic outbursts of attacking intent, as when Mommsen hoisted Dean Cosker over long-off for the one and only maximum of Scotland's innings, while Chalmers also showed his capability with a couple of well-timed 4s.The departure of Mommsen, though, sparked the second collapse of the innings. Having made 41, the Carlton batsman chopped a delivery from John Glover on to his stumps as four wickets fell in the last six overs as the Saltires tried in vain to hoist their tally to something defendable.Chalmers survived until the final over, holing out for a 69-ball 38. Allenby, meanwhile, sent down his eight-over allocation for only 16 runs while Glover matched his three-wicket tally. ScoreboardSCOTLANDJ Davey c Wallace b Jones 11C MacLeod b Allenby 21J Symes c&b Allenby 6G Goudie c Walters b Glover 0R Berrington b Allenby 11P Mommsen b Glover 41E Chalmers c Walters b Harris 38R Flannigan lbw b Glover 0M Haq not out 13C Wallace b Harris 0Extras (lb3 w7) 10Total (for nine, 40 overs) 151Fall 1-27, 2-41, 3-42, 4-51, 5-54, 6-124, 7-124, 8-150Bowling Harris 8-0-36-2, Jones 6-0-29-1, Glover 8-0-34-3, Cosker 8-2-25-0, James 2-0-8-0 GLAMORGANG Rees not out 60M Wallace c Davey b Berrington 24C Cooke c MacLeod b Berrington 13J Allenby not out 39Extras (lb6 w12) 18Total (for two, 28 overs) 154Fall 1-65, 2-91 Bowling Evans 4-0-12-0, Goudie 2-0-17-0, Davey 2-0-30-0, Haq 8-0-25-0, Berrington 8-0-37-2, Symes 2-1-4-0, Mommsen 2-0-23-0 Glamorgan win by eight wickets.

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Judd rues decision to bat first against Welsh

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