Cricket ICC Trophy finalScotland ruined what had looked like being Ireland's tournament as they outplayed the hosts in the final of the ICC Trophy at Castle Avenue yesterday.
Everything was set up for a great final. A large partisan crowd, sunny day, the two best sides in the competition and the swan song for perhaps the best batsman ever to play for Ireland. In the end, it fizzled out into a comfortable 47-run win for Scotland much to the disappointment of the 3,000 or so in Castle Avenue.
Not that the Scots will mind the lack of drama, of course. They batted better, bowled better and fully deserved to lift the ICC Trophy for the first time.
It also probably marked the end of Ed Joyce's Ireland career. He will now shift his sights to winning a place on the England Test team and may never wear the shamrock again. His knock of 81 off 82 balls was as impressive as ever, although he left the Clontarf crowd wanting more. Much more.
With the score on 148 for 2, Ireland's target of 325 to win looked possible.
But Jeremy Bray and a bit later, Joyce, both holed out to Ryan Watson at deep square leg and a cameo from Trent Johnston aside, the home side never really recovered their momentum. Paul Mooney (34 not out) and Gordan Cooke (22 not out) put on an unbeaten 55 for the 10th wicket at the end but by that stage it was a lost cause.
Earlier, as the sun shone, and with a flat track and quick outfield it was never going to be easy for bowling but the Irish attack didn't really do themselves any favours. They gave away too many wides (20) and an unacceptable amount of four-balls, never really putting any sustained pressure on the Scottish batsmen.
As he has done all tournament, Kyle McCallan bowled a good length with plenty of variation. His figures of 1-41 off 10 overs stand out as several of his team-mates were going for six or seven an over or worse. Unluckily, Andre Botha went over on his ankle while bowling and was unable to complete his spell - a real shame for Ireland because he was bowling a very tight line and had only gone for 20 off five overs.
But this should not take away from what was an impressive Scottish performance with the bat. Paul Hoffman and Fraser Watts got them off to a flyer, putting on 37 for the first wicket by just the fifth over. Watts was then joined by Ryan Watson and the pair put on 120 in quick time. They were particularly fast the latch onto anything short and their running between the wickets was excellent.
Ironically, it was a poor piece of running that broke the partnership as Watts was run out for 55. But Cedric English and then, former England one-day international Dougie Brown kept the momentum up. Watson was eventually caught on the long-off boundary just six short of his century and Scotland got up to their impressive total of 324 for 9.
As it turned out, it was too good and having beaten Scotland in the previous two one-day games they played, normal order of being Ireland's bogey team is restored. It was a limp end to what has been a good tournament for Ireland but the success of qualifying for the 2007 World Cup is a genuine consolation. With this result, Ireland now know they will be based in Jamaica for that competition and will face Zimbabwe, Pakistan and hosts the West Indies. Around the ground, there was plenty of talk about booking flights for Kingston for what will be a brand-new adventure for Irish cricket.
"It's a funny feeling," said McCallan who was filling in as captain for the injured Jason Molins. "I am very, very disappointed in terms of the result today but the consolation is that we are going to play the West Indies in Jamaica," he said.
Playing in the Totesport League, the Scots are a semi-professional outfit with six players on contract and they always seem to keep just a nose in front of Ireland as far as development is concerned.
"Scotland are a couple of years ahead of us in terms of their professional set-up but I would hate to put that forward as an excuse. We know that we didn't bowl well enough on the day," said McCallan.
Scoreboard
SCOTLAND INNINGS
P J C Hoffmann c D I Joyce b Mooney 23
D F Watts run out 55
R R Watson c A R White b Johnston 94
C V English c A R White b Johnston 20
C J O Smith st Bray b McCallan 2
D R Brown c D I Joyce b Cooke 59
G M Hamilton c Morgan b Cooke 12
D R Lockhart not out 18
G I Maiden c D I Joyce b Cooke 11
C M Wright not out 1
Extras b5 lb4 w20 29
Total 8 wkts (50 overs) 324
Fall: 1-37; 2-157; 3-195; 4-198; 5-234; 6-283; 7-292; 8-312.
Did Not Bat: J A R Blain.
Bowling: Mooney 7-0-62-1; Johnston 10-0-66-2; A C Botha 5-0-20-0; Cooke 9-1-70-3; McCallan 10-0-41-1; A R White 9-0-56-0.
IRELAND INNINGS
D I Joyce c C J O Smith b Hoffmann 1
J P Bray c Watson b Maiden 70
E J G Morgan lbw b Hoffmann 4
E C Joyce c Watson b Wright 81
P G Gillespie c Hamilton b Wright 9
D T Johnston st C J O Smith b Maiden 23
A R White lbw b Wright 0
A C Botha lbw b Watson 10
W K McCallan c Wright b Brown 1
P J K Mooney not out 34
G Cooke not out 22
Extras b1 lb15 w6 22
Total 9 wkts (50 overs) 277
Fall: 1-6; 2-11; 3-148; 4-179; 5-185; 6-188; 7-217; 8-218; 9-222.
Bowling: Hoffmann 10-2-47-2; Brown 10-2-33-1; Wright 7-0-48-3; Blain 5-0-32-0; Watson 9-0-45-1; Maiden 9-0-56-2.
Umpires: A L Hill and S Hameed.
Scotland won by 47 runs.
Man of the Match: R R Watson (Scotland).
