SCOTLAND ended their final YB40 campaign without a win after Lancashire eased to victory at a damp and murky Titwood last night.
The Saltires could only muster 145 all out, a total that was never going to be enough against county opposition, and, sure enough, Lancashire eased to their revised target of 125 from 28 overs in the gathering gloom.
"Of course it's disappointing to go through the whole season without beating a county," said Preston Mommsen, the Saltires captain, "especially since it is the first time it has happened in 11 years, but we have to keep a sense of perspective. We went into the season without an experienced overseas player and all the counties we came out against have loads of experience."
There might have been more pressure on Lancashire had Scotland batted with more urgency but, with the exception of a late burst from Calvin Burnett (25), their effort was a familiar tale of limp progress. At one stage, as wickets steadily fell, the Saltire went 141 deliveries without crossing the boundary rope. Before Burnett let fly, the only scores of any paltry note came from Berrington (36) and Mommsen, who finished on 31 not out from 50 deliveries.
"We saw how the Lancashire bowlers adjusted to the conditions," said Mommsen. "They knew immediately how to bowl on the wicket and made it hard for us to get any rhythm. It was a bad toss to lose and it was difficult to get any momentum going."
In reply, Tom Smith and Ashwell Prince kept the county ahead of the Duckworth/Lewis rate. Prince, deceived by Majid Haq, eventually chipped-up a catch to Burnett but his 36, including four boundaries and a six, had put the visitors in charge.
Simon Katich also fell to Gordon Goudie as the Saltires at least went down fighting but Smith finished unbeaten on 42 as Lancashire eased home with seven wickets and 28 balls to spare.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article