SCOTLAND'S two-match series with Kenya was always, regardless of the weather, going to be swallowed by thoughts of England, and Craig Wright's comeback performance yesterday fitted neatly into that context.
This country's most-capped international put himself back on course to face Kevin Pietersen's team on Monday after a miserly spell of bowling in Ayr, where only 43.1 of the 100 available overs were bowled due to rain. The teams will try again in toda
y's one-day international sequel.
Asked to bat first by Ryan Watson, Kenya struggled until Thomas Odoyo produced a blitz of 45 off 35 balls to propel them to 140-7 of their 35 overs. In reply, Watson led the hosts to a promising 31-1 in the ninth over before rain returned to force a no-result.
All the home bowlers prospered, bar Gordon Drummond and Richie Berrington, with Wright's form in particular piercing the gloom. He had not played for his country since celebrating his 180th cap with a victory over Lancashire at Old Trafford on 5 May. Bulging discs in his back have become an issue he simply has to manage, but the old workhorse passed this key examination.
After a 1pm start, Kenya's innings was interrupted at 26-2 in the ninth over and captain Steve Tikolo was spared on the resumption, dropped by wicket-keeper Colin Smith after gaining an inside edge to Dewald Nel. But in loped the lean figure of Wright, and his irresistible out-swingers had an immediate impact when Tikolo went for a Calypso drive and made straightforward Smith's act of atonement.
Simply by moving the ball away off a good length, Scotland's World Cup captain embarrassed the helpless Kenyans until Maurice Ouma flashed a six off his legs in Wright's fourth over. The seamer's final figures of 7-2-16-1 featured only five scores off the bat. Pietersen will be a rather different proposition but at least Scotland's most enduringly effective bowler is back.
Wright had insisted on the eve of the game he was not someone who needed games to rediscover his rhythm, but his captain was relieved by his comeback. Watson said: "It's nice to have him back. He has always felt that he has been fit for these two weeks but it's always at the back of the coach's and selectors' minds: 'Is he fit?' But he proved today what a good bowler he still is."
The 34-year-old blotted his copybook with one of four catching chances grassed yesterday, set against the pleasing sight of Watson, John Blain and Nel taking wickets in exacting fashion with the first ball of a spell. But when the captain continued his cruel habit of bringing Gordon Drummond back from nowhere to bowl the final over, Odoyo's eyes lit up and the first, second (a no-ball) and fourth deliveries were all smashed for six.
Berrington's tracer throw to Smith ran Odoyo out and stemmed the flow, but only after Kenya's champion had run amok. Had rain not had the final say, compounding the two sides' misery after their four-day game in Glasgow was washed out without a ball bowled, his might have been the decisive contribution.
"It's frustrating after having sat around for four days, and the guys here did such a good job to get the ground ready, to be thwarted again by rain," added Watson. "The only positive we can take out of it is that the bowlers got a bowl, which they needed, because we have got quite an important game coming up against England."
Kyle Coetzer of Durham and Navdeep Poonia of Warwickshire have until today to tell Scotland whether they will be available to take on England. Neither county has a coinciding game.
The full article contains 636 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
