SCOTLAND'S cricketers will today attempt to end a sequence of six defeats at the home of old rivals Durham.
Not since 2003 have the Saltires returned from the Emirates ICG – then known simply as the Riverside – with a victory to savour.
That was the day a side coached by Tony Judd famously marked their entrance to the old Totesport National League with a superb four-wicket triumph.
Judd will make the trip south again today in his capacity as assistant coach and video analyst, while the only other survivor of that game is Majid Haq, the man who did most to secure the famous win. The teenager's spell of wily spin bowling yielded 4-36 as the county middle order men were outfoxed.
Haq is still bamboozling the best of batsmen as his three scalps against Hampshire last week demonstrated and a further four today would see him overtake John Blain to become the country's second highest wicket-taker. It is a record Haq is proud of and the 29-year-old would like nothing better than to contribute to what he believes is an overdue win against Durham.
"I've still got great memories of that victory, but it's frustrating that we've not won down there since then," he said. "We've come close a couple of times and last year I think we would have won if we'd taken a catch at a key moment, but we know the margins between success and failure are very small at this level.
"In 2003 a victory against any county was a rarity and almost all the guys were amateurs. Now we have six or seven on contracts and there is rightly an expectation that we should be winning more often. But we have to make sure we play with maximum intensity for 80 overs of every match. Turning it on for just 60 overs is no use, especially against one of the top counties like Durham.
"I didn't know I was close to being Scotland's second top wicket-taker, but I suppose it's not surprising that records like that come along when you've been playing as long as I have."
Coach Pete Steindl may consider freshening up the team with the inclusion of former Durham employee Moneeb Iqbal in the squad.
Squad: G Drummond capt, J Davey, C MacLeod, R Flannigan, J Symes, R Berrington, P Mommsen, C Wallace, M Haq, M Parker, A Evan, M Iqbal, F Watts.
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