Cricket Intercontinental Cup: A nasty batting collapse that reduced Ireland from 129 for 2 to 174 all out has put the defending champions under severe pressure going into day three of their InterContinental Cup match against Scotland at Aberdeen.
After losing Jeremy Bray early in their first innings on Thursday evening, William Porterfield and Andre Botha battled hard on a tough crease for batting, putting on 51 for the second wicket. But when the hard work was done, Botha edged one to second slip off the bowling of Dougie Brown and he was gone for 35.
Porterfield and Niall O'Brien then dug deep again as the ball was darting around on the Mannofield turf. But again, just when it seemed like Ireland were going to make a good stab of chasing Scotland's first innings total of 265, O'Brien (28) nicked one to wicket-keeper Colin Smith and soon afterwards Porterfield (48) fell, caught at slip and the wheels came off Ireland's reply.
After that, Andy White got to 21 and Kyle McCallan to 13 but no one else made double figures as the Irish were all out 91 runs short, giving Scotland six points for the innings victory.
The Scots bowled consistently well during the day, putting the ball in the right areas with the seamers' wicket doing the rest but Ireland's batters did not help themselves, playing injudicious shots on a pitch that demanded a little more circumspection.
Ireland's bowlers gave the team a glimmer of hope, however, removing four Scottish batsmen before the close after only 24 runs had been added to their total. Skipper Trent Johnston took 3-12 off six overs, including the prize scalp of Ryan Watson, who top scored for Scotland with 73 in the first innings. But such are the conditions, Ireland would not like to be chasing anything over 200 in the final innings and therefore must bowl the Scots out for less than 100 if they are to stand a realistic chance of winning the match outright.
"In all, it was a terrible day for us," said coach Adrian Birrell last night. "It's very tricky batting out there but I was disappointed in how we lost our wickets after doing all the hard work. Porterfield batted beautifully. So did O'Brien and Botha. We created a good base but then let it go."
Birrell pointed to the first session of the match as being the most disappointing, allowing Scotland get off to a good start on what should have been ideal bowling conditions for Ireland's seam-dominated attack.
So Scotland already have six points after the first innings, with another 14 up for grabs for an outright win. Ireland can ill-afford to give all 20 to their opponents if they are going to qualify for the finals again this time around. They need their bowlers to finish the job they started yesterday afternoon and then the batters need to knuckle down and find the runs required from somewhere over the next two days.
Meanwhile, it is a quiet weekend in Leinster cricket with only one WM League match taking place. On Sunday, The Hills play Malahide at Milverton in what could be an important game in the relegation battle at the bottom of Section A.
Day two - At Mannofield, Aberdeen
Overnight: Scotland (First innings) 265 all out (R Watson 79, J Blain 53; D Langford-Smith 5-65, K McCallan 2-22, T Johnston 2-72); Ireland (First innings) 43 for 1 (W Porterfield 19 not out, J Bray 13, A Botha 9 not out)
IRELAND (First innings contd)
W Porterfield c Brown b Hamilton ............... 48
A Botha c Watson b Brown ..........................35
N O'Brien c Smith b Brown ..........................28
P Gillespie c Smith b Blain ............................3
A White c Watson b Wright ..........................21
K McCallan c Smith b Wright .......................13
T Johnston b Wright .......................................2
J Mooney lbw D Brown ...................................0
P Mooney c Smith b Brown ............................0
D Langford-Smith not out .............................6
Extras (4lb, 1nb) .......................................... 5
Total (all out, 65.2 overs) ......................... 174
Fall of wickets: 2-78 (A Botha) 3-129 (N O'Brien) 4-129 (W Porterfield) 5-136 (P Gillespie) 6-166 (K McCallan) 7-167 (A White) 8-168 (J Mooney) 9-169 (T Johnston) 10-174 (P Mooney). Bowling: Hoffman 17-1-61-0, Brown 19.2-8-37-5, Blain 15-2-41-1, Hamilton 9-2-17-1, Wright 5-0-14-3.
SCOTLAND (Second innings) F Watts c Porterfield b Langford-Smith 1; N MacRae c O'Brien b Johnston 10; R Watson c O'Brien b Johnston 4; G Hamilton lbw Johnston 4; D Brown not out 2; N McCallum not out 0. Extras (1nb, 1w, 1lb) 3. Total (for 4, 12 overs) 24. Fall of wickets: 1-5 (F Watts) 2-12 (N Mac Rae) 3-17 (R Watson) 4-23 (G Hamilton) To bat: C Smith, J Blain, C Wright, P Hoffman, R Lyons Bowling: Johnston 6-2-12-3, D Langford-Smith 4-1-4-1, P Mooney 2-0-7-0.
