Roach leaves Bangladesh in tatters

Bangladesh 104 for 7 (Tamim 48, Roach 5-33) trail West Indies 380 (Chanderpaul 84*, Johnson 66, Al-Amin 3-80) by 276 runs
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details

Kemar Roach thrilled on his way to a five-wicket haul, leaving the Bangladesh batsmen dazed and confused. His 12-over spell after the tea interval gave West Indies full command at the end of the second day, with the visitors left lurching at 104 for seven.

They are now 276 runs behind West Indies' 380 all out from earlier in the day. The three-man pace attack was what Denesh Ramdin used for all but two overs till stumps.

Roach removed Shamsur Rahman in the sixth over and after tea, and accounted for Anamul Haque, Tamim Iqbal, Nasir Hossain and Taijul Islam to complete his sixth five-for and his first of the year. His deliveries would invariably be on a good length or further up, tempting the batsmen to either play the ball or leave with some confusion.

Roach was lucky to get the wicket of Shamsur, who tickled a legside delivery, neatly caught by Ramdin diving to his left. Anamul couldn't make up his mind whether to leave or play the ball. He suffered that torment for just over an hour until his attempted leave took the bat's face and ended up in Darren Bravo's hands at first slip. Tamim, having made 48 off 75 balls, was constantly being dragged away from the stumps even when he was leaving the ball. After several close shaves, Tamim went sideways, edging the ball far from his body.

Nasir Hossain's prod was more out of speculation but he hardly wasted time in the middle. Taijul was set up with relentless short balls, two hitting him in the gloves, and then he timed one right into third-man's lap. Roach's five-for was complete

Apart from Roach's five, Jerome Taylor took two wickets while Shannon Gabriel went wicketless, but the plan to attack Bangladesh was a three-man strategy.

Gabriel was the quickest of the lot, regularly hitting 90mph and he attacked the stumps mostly but he also beat the bat a number of times. He had stung Tamim on the front boot with a yorker just before tea and the batsman only survived the review because Hawkeye suggested the ball had pitched inches outside the leg stump.

Taylor bowled more at the body, reintroducing the Bangladesh batsmen to their old fear: the short ball. His delivery to Mominul Haque was virtually unplayable with the batsman completely unaware where the ball that hit him in the gloves had gone.

It was smartly caught by Jermaine Blackwood at short leg, and the spit that was created by the seam hitting the pitch just short of a good length made it the most dangerous delivery of the day.

Thirty-nine minutes later, Taylor moved the ball back into Bangladesh's best batsman on the tour, Mushfiqur Rahim, and dislodged the off stump.

Earlier, the West Indies innings ended an hour into the second session, after Shivnarine Chanderpaul had held it together with an unbeaten 84. He had made an unbeaten 85 in the first innings of the first Test, but here in St. Lucia the situation was more complicated.

When he joined Darren Bravo late on the first day, the fourth-wicket pair had to negotiate an invigorated Bangladesh bowling attack. They guided West Indies to safety but Bravo didn't last too long in today's morning session, losing his patience after Robiul Islam and Al-Amin Hossain had strung together seven parsimonious overs. In the first six overs of the day, West Indies scored only two runs, both being no-balls.

Bravo was drawn into following a Robiul outswinger, edging to the wicketkeeper for 46. It triggered a collapse and three more wickets - those of Jermaine Blackwood, Ramdin and Roach - fell in the next 21 balls. Al-Amin was on a hat-trick at one stage after he had made the ball straighten after pitching to find the edges of Blackwood, caught at first slip, and Ramdin, caught behind.

West Indies were 269 for 7, and Chanderpaul only had the tail for company. Help came from No 9 Jerome Taylor, who hammered 40 off 31 balls with five fours and two sixes. The 41 minutes of mayhem threw Bangladesh off-kilter, evidenced by Mominul Haque dropping Taylor at cover, when he was on 18. And even after Taijul Islam broke the 54-run eighth wicket stand, Bangladesh's wait wasn't over.

Sulieman Benn made 25 and added 52 with Chanderpaul for the ninth wicket, before he was caught at fine leg off Al-Amin. The innings ended soon after, when Robiul bowled Shannon Gabriel in the 124th over. Al-Amin finished with three wickets while Shafiul, Robiul and the expensive Taijul picked up two each.

The bowlers may have thought they did a good enough job by taking 7 for 134 in the first three hours but they will have to put in a gargantuan effort with the bat as well, to drag the Bangladesh innings past the follow-on mark, if they are to have another bowl at the home side.

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Saqlain Sajib wrecks Zimbabwe A

Bangladesh A 30 for 0 trail Zimbabwe A 206 (Chakabva 64, Sajib 9-82) by 176 runs
Scorecard

Bangladesh A left-arm spinner Saqlain Sajib blew Zimbabwe A away on the first day of the unofficial four-day match in Cox's Bazar, as he collected 9 for 82 - the best bowling figures in first-class cricket by a Bangladesh player, beating Abdur Razzak's 9 for 84 in 2012.

The visitors were bowled out for 206 in their first innings, after which Litton Das and Shadman Islam guided Bangladesh A to 30 for no loss at stumps.

Sajib started by removing Tino Mawoyo in the 15th over, but Zimbabwe A captain Vusimuzi Sibanda and Brian Chari led a recovery by adding 61 for the second wicket. Chari fell to Sajib after lunch, having made 30 off 56 balls, and he was soon followed back to the pavilion by Mark Vermeulen.

That third wicket prompted a mid-innings collapse as Zimbabwe A lost their next four wickets for just nine runs. Sibanda was dismissed for 62 off 99 balls with five fours, and was quickly followed by Tinotenda Mutombodzi, Luke Jongwe and Tawanda Mupariwa, as Zimbabwe A fell to 122 for 7 by the 39th over. Jongwe was bowled by Farhad Hossain, before Sajib removed Mupariwa to claim his fifth victim.

The wicketkeeper-batsman Regis Chakabva added 65 for the eighth wicket with Wellington Masakadza, the younger brother of Hamilton and Shingi. Chakabva was the last man out, for 64 off 110 balls with three fours, as Sajib walked off with his first nine-wicket haul. He is now only the second Bangladesh bowler after Razzak to achieve this feat. Sajib's previous best was 7 for 29 during the 2009-10 National Cricket League.

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Tahir parachuted in for Hants push

Imran Tahir, the Pakistan-born South Africa legspinner, has rejoined Hampshire for the final two weeks of the season as the club look to close out promotion back to Divison One of the County Championship.

Tahir, 35, last played for Hampshire in 2011 and was part of the side that won the county's first T20 title in 2010; he also helped them to Finals Day a year later.

In 2009 he was Hampshire's leading Championship wicket-taker with 52 scalps at 32.90 and two years later took 28 first-class wickets at 24.46 in eight Championship matches - but that season saw Hampshire relegated and now Tahir hopes to put that right.

Hampshire need 27 points in two matches to make certain their promotion and have matches at home to Kent and away to Glamorgan remaining.

"It was definitely in my mind when I agreed to come here and I'm looking forward to the challenge," Tahir said. "I'm only here for the last two matches but If I can contribute to Hampshire getting promoted then I will be very satisfied.

"It's always nice to be in England - I love it here. Hampshire were the club who gave me my first chance so I owe them a lot. I've played for a few sides in England but I do really enjoying playing my cricket here and I have a lot of respect for Hampshire and the people.

"Hampshire have played really good cricket all season and I'm just here to give all I've got for the next two games. I really enjoy playing my cricket at Hampshire and hopefully we'll do well and get over the line."

Tahir has previously been parachuted in at the end of the season. In 2008, he appeared for Hampshire's final game of the year despite having been called back by his South African club Titans two weeks previously. He took eight wickets in the match but it wasn't enough to lift Hampshire over eventual champions Durham.

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Bangladesh running away from batting issues

The St Vincent and St Lucia Tests have shown that Bangladesh's batting habits continue to be ineffective in any conditions slightly different from those they encounter at home.

The 35th over of the Bangladesh innings produced ten runs and a wicket, which was an unimportant contribution to their score and only gave West Indies the wicket of a tail-ender. An unsafe 79 for 6 became a more perilous 89 for 7.

What stuck out during this over was the constant chatter that came from the other end. Barring the first ball, Kemar Roach was bowling only short-pitched deliveries at Taijul Islam but Mahmudullah kept telling the man on strike that the next one would be a full ball. He said it after Taijul was stung on the gloves off the second ball, after he had fended the next one off his elbow guard for four leg byes, and after the next two balls, to which the No.8 again backed away.

Initially it seemed as if the senior batsman was preempting what Roach was going to bowl, and hoping that the next one would indeed be a full ball. But Mahmudullah's motive sounded like an indirect attempt at bringing Taijul to the pitch of the ball.

It is what club coaches sometimes do in Bangladesh when the young batsman has only just started to play with the cricket ball. The coaxing would obviously be backed up by an actual full ball and sometimes slipping in the short one, but it has often worked.

The simple reverse-psychology would work on someone only starting out on the game but Taijul was having none of that. He was not going to stand still to Roach for any one of those deliveries. Finally, he backed away and ramped the sixth ball into third-man's hand.

Taijul has a 64 in his 20 first-class matches so far, but he is a tail-ender. These days everyone in the playing XI is expected to have some gumption to hold his own, with a precondition that they would have batted at a competitive level in their formative years.

Roach's hounding of Taijul, and the batsman's sliding away from the line of the short ball each time, showed how unprepared most Bangladeshi cricketers are when they enter international cricket. The manner of his batting made it easy to realise that he was fearing getting hit, and that invariably happens when a batsman is not used to facing this sort of attack. But this cannot be an excuse for Taijul or for Bangladesh cricket.

To go a little deeper, it is indicative of how little attention is paid in pitch development even in first-class venues. The acceptance that Bangladeshi cricketers will always play on flat pitches that only offer slow pace and little bounce doesn't just trouble Taijul but the more established players like Tamim Iqbal, Nasir Hossain and Mushfiqur Rahim.

Bangladesh's cricket calendar is shaped as such that international cricket clashes with domestic cricket, and since the Dhaka clubs are opposed to playing the Premier League one-day tournament without the national players, first-class cricket doesn't see any of the senior players hone their skills regularly.

It is true for most Test countries that their international cricketers are hardly available for region, club, county or franchise but in the case of the tenth Test playing nation, such absence hurts the international cricketers as much as it constricts the domestic game.

So when the senior cricketers are repeating the same mistake in Test cricket, are being sucked into a false comfort zone or cannot easily find their way out of poor form, a lot of things are blamed, except their appearance in domestic matches.

The economy of Bangladesh cricket is kept sound by ensuring these players get to play Dhaka Premier League and the Bangladesh Premier League at every given opportunity. But when Test status was sought 14 years ago or fiercely protected earlier this year, was it done just for the "status"?

Let alone the domestic game, the idea of playing more first-class cricket against Associate Nations has never been given due attention. The BCB have made it clear in the recent past that they would avoid risking a loss to one of these lesser ranked nations. Former president AHM Mustafa Kamal dawdled for a long time before approving a T20 series against Ireland two years ago. When Bangladesh won a game there, he hastily arranged an extra game, only to lose that one.

Shane Jurgensen and before him Stuart Law requested time and again to arrange some four-day cricket against the likes of Ireland, UAE or Afghanistan but the BCB kept quiet. Nepal and Afghanistan have come out and said how little the BCB have supported them.

The connection between these decisions and how Taijul batted is long-winded but a simple route. When the BCB doesn't pay attention to the cricketing needs of the Bangladesh team, and that means skill development and the quest for constant improvement in their all-round game, the writing is on the wall for the cricketers, established in international cricket or not, to struggle in alien conditions.

Bangladesh's last tryst with a green-top was in Zimbabwe last year and they were crushed in both innings of the first Test match. In 2012 they did not face a pitch that offered pace and bounce while in 2011 it was only the West Indies and Pakistan attacks in Mirpur and Chittagong that made them uncomfortable; the year before they faced swing and seam in England for two Tests and struggled.

The other side of the argument is that Bangladesh need not change pitches at home just to prepare for conditions that they face only once or twice every year. But as has been the latest evidence in slow St Vincent and rapid St Lucia, the batting habits that have been set for years are ineffective in any conditions that are slightly different than at home.

So when Roach comes to hit Taijul, he will not listen to Mahmudullah from the other end but will continue to run away. Saving his bowling fingers, saving himself. How that reflects on a Test-playing nation is for all to see.

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Illegal bowling actions: FAQs

The whats, whys and hows of illegal bowling actions, and the related corrective measures and penalties.

What is an illegal bowling action?
An illegal bowling action is one in which the bowler's 'elbow extension' exceeds 15 degrees while he is in his delivery stride. The ICC set the 15-degree limit for all bowlers in November 2004.

What constitutes elbow extension?
Elbow extension includes flexion (in this case, the closing of the elbow joint) and extension (the straightening of the elbow joint).

Does a bent arm automatically signify an illegal action?
If the arm is bent at the onset of the delivery stride but remains rigid or does not flex or extend beyond the permissible 15 degrees during the duration of the stride, the action is not illegal. An action is only illegal if the arm flexes or extends beyond the permissible limit while in the delivery stride.

What happens after a bowler's action is reported by the match officials?
Once the match officials' report is received by the bowler's team management or home board, he must undergo testing on his action at an ICC-accredited facility within 21 days. At present, there are ICC-approved centres in Brisbane and Cardiff, and another one in Chennai is expected to be functional soon. The player is free to bowl until the results of the test are out.

What does the test involve?
The bowler is expected to replicate the action he uses during an international match and bowl at the same speed too, for the various deliveries being tested. His action is captured by multiple cameras and his movement is monitored using sensors placed on his body. The test, which is conducted by biomechanists and human movement experts, measures the degree of flexion and extension for every delivery and determines whether the action violates the prescribed 15-degree limit.

If the action is found to be illegal, what then?
The player will be suspended from bowling in international cricket immediately and a report of the test will be sent to the player's home board. On receipt of the report, the board has the option of appealing the results to an ICC-appointed bowling review group (BRG) within 14 days. However, should the appeal fail, the BRG could impose a ban on the player for a period of time.

What is the process if the player's board decides not to appeal?
The player will have to undergo remedial work on his action. He can apply for retesting at any point of time, and if his remedied action passes the ICC's 15-degree rule, he will be allowed to resume bowling in international cricket.

What happens if the bowler's action is found to be illegal a second time?
If the player is suspended a second time for an illegal action within two years of the first instance, the second suspension - from bowling in international cricket - shall last for a minimum of one year. He will be allowed to apply for reassessment only at the completion of the one year.

What if only one of a bowler's deliveries is deemed to be illegal?
If testing shows that the bowler's action is illegal only for a particular delivery, say the doosra, he will be banned from bowling just the doosra in international cricket until he corrects his action for this particular ball and has it passed as legal. If he is found to have bowled the doosra in an international game without having it reassessed first, he will be reported and suspended from bowling in internationals altogether, and the suspension shall be considered a second suspension in keeping with the terms mentioned in the previous question.

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Dahiya back as Delhi Ranji coach

Former India wicketkeeper-batsman Vijay Dahiya has been reinstated as the chief coach of the Delhi Ranji Trophy side while former Test batsman Yashpal Sharma will head the selection panel, according to a list released by the Delhi and Districts Cricket Association (DDCA).

Dahiya had coached Delhi in the 2012-13 season before DDCA decided against renewing his contract as assistant coach Sanjeev Sharma was elevated to top post. However, Delhi failed to clear the group stage last season under Sanjeev.

Sanjeev is in line to become one of the domestic match referees.

Gursharan Singh will be the chairman of selectors for the Under-23 side, which will be coached by Ajay Verma while another former Delhi skipper, Bantoo Singh, will head the U-19 selection panel and Raju Sharma has been appointed chief coach.

Anil Jain and Kamal Talwar will be the chairman of the U-16 and U-14 teams. Shikhar Dhawan's childhood coach Madan Sharma will be in charge of U-16 side while U-14 team will be under S M Khan's tutelege.

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Lahore Lions bowlers sink listless Mumbai Indians

Lahore Lions 139 for 4 (Akmal 38*, Shehzad 34) beat Mumbai Indians 135 for 7 (Tare 37, Cheema 2-22) by six wickets
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details

Mohammad Hafeez had tried to portray Lahore Lions as the underdog, saying he would be content if his team played to potential and enjoyed themselves. As the match wore on however, it was revealed to be a ruse as a bowling line-up that looked fit for an international team confounded Mumbai Indians.

A target of 136 would not bother most T20 champions and Lahore Lions, who had won the Faysal Bank T-20 in 2014, had Ahmed Shehzad at the top and Umar Akmal during the finish to guide them home and leave the defending champions with a tougher path for their place in the main draw.

The top order had been a point of concern through the IPL for Mumbai and those same concerns followed them to the Champions League. Aizaz Cheema's nagging lines forced Mumbai to slip from a sedate 20 for 0 in the third over to 23 for 3 in the fourth.

Cheema induced Lendl Simmons into holing out to mid-off for 7. Jalaj Saxena, on debut for Mumbai, was on the receiving end of a lovely outswinger and edged to slip the very next ball. The hat-trick was denied by Ambati Rayudu, but an optimistic single could have caused problems had Saad Nasim nailed the throw at the non-strikers' end. Lions were not hurt badly by that missed opportunity as Rayudu's swat to midwicket resulted in an edge to the keeper in the next over.

Michael Hussey, who was picked ahead of Corey Anderson, added 44 runs with Aditya Tare to halt the slide. A cracking pull had got Hussey going and he looked imperious while lifting Hafeez over long-off but the pace of Wahab Riaz, melded with a good line outside off, had him nicking to the keeper. Tare trudged on for 37 off 36 balls, his efforts to accelerate stymied by offspinner Adnan Rasool, who conceded only 13 in three overs.

Harbhajan Singh and Praveen Kumar went on a slogging spree in the final few overs but the final score of 135 looked quite light, 18.4 overs later it was proved so.

Nasir Jamshed and Ahmed Shehzad collected 51 for the opening partnership but some smart fielding helped Mumbai hit back. Pollard dived and got under a skew to long-on and Tare displayed good presence of mind to have Jamshed stumped, as the batsman wandered out of his crease without realising the ball had dribbled off his bat and pad to the keeper. Akmal arrived with 55 required off 37 balls and defused the situation with a flurry of boundaries - he helped smack Lasith Malinga for 15 runs in the 18th over and killed the chase with four, six and four.

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Openers set up strong day for West Indies

West Indies 246 for 3 (Johnson 66, Brathwaite 63) v Bangladesh
Live scorecard and ball-by-ball details

Given that only a small crowd came to the Beausejour Stadium to watch West Indies' 500th Test match, the swaying fortunes of West Indies and Bangladesh was what illuminated the occasion. The first day of the second Test could have gone either way. In the end, it was the home side who emerged happier, but not to the extent they may have imagined at the end of a wicketless first session.

West Indies were 246 for three at stumps, a score that reflected the fact that they did not take full advantage of a 143-run opening partnership between Kraigg Brathwaite and the debutant Leon Johnson. It also flattered them, since they lost their way in the final session and Bangladesh bowled well but dropped some important catches.

Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Darren Bravo, unbeaten on 34 and 44 respectively, steered West Indies through a tough period. They have so far added 61 for the fourth wicket, with Bravo starting off with a string of fours and sixes before shutting up shop. But the partnership could have ended in the 72nd over when Al-Amin, who was getting the ball to straighten from around the wicket, found Chanderpaul's edge only for Nasir Hossain to drop it, diving to his right from second slip. He could have left it for first slip, where Anamul Haque would only have had to lean forward to make the catch.

The Bangladesh pace bowlers ended the day with their heads slightly higher after a disappointing first session. After Mushfiqur Rahim chose to field first on a pacy and bouncy pitch with lateral movement, they hardly attacked the stumps in the first session.

Johnson and Brathwaite gave West Indies the ideal start, going through the first session wicketless. Having scored at just over two runs an over before lunch, they picked up the pace soon after, adding 82 before Brathwaite, having scored his sixth fifty, played an out-of-character shot, chasing a wide ball from Shafiul Islam and spooning a catch to point.

Johnson's 66 showed promise, not just while threading the ball through the covers or hitting straight. He took his time getting off the mark, off his 17th ball, but he adjusted manfully even though he is not a regular opener. He reached his fifty off 135 balls, but couldn't take advantage of a half-chance, when he edged the ball through the slips on 61, and fell after adding just five more. Johnson's 162-ball innings contained five fours and a six.

His dismissal, leg-before to Taijul Islam, came 25 balls after Brathwaite's dismissal. He could have had another reprieve if he had asked for the review within 15 seconds but he was late by three seconds after consulting Kirk Edwards, the non-striker. Hawkeye suggested that the ball from Taijul Islam would have missed the leg stump.

Edwards had yet another unproductive outing, getting out for 16 to a good low catch, diving to his left, by Shamsur Rahman at cover off Mahmudullah. He had been given a life on five when Taijul Islam dropped a simple chance off his bat at backward point.

Shafiul was lucky to get the wicket of Brathwaite but saw two chances, the ones given by Johnson and Edwards, going down off his bowling. This being his first Test in more than three years, it would be a satisfying first day though he too, like Robiul Islam and Al-Amin Hossain, was trying to overdo the swing and seam movement in the first session.

Robiul was having a poor day as he was wayward and undisciplined, but he bowled well after tea, getting the old ball to jag both ways to the left-handers. He gave Chanderpaul some food for thought with the second new ball too, as shots were attempted and edges missed by whiskers.

Al-Amin also improved as the day progressed, ensuring he kept the ball up and used the movement in the air without forcing things to happen. He beat Chanderpaul in the 72nd over and a ball later, had him edging. He was livid at the slip cordon when Nasir dropped the catch.

West Indies added 93 runs in the last session without losing a wicket, ending the day on a bit of a high. Bangladesh, on the other hand, must have been peeved at not taking the chances. They will have a ball that is just five overs old and a pace attack that has learned what not to do on this pitch in the morning session.

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Chucking is technical fault, not crime - Dravid

Rahul Dravid believes bowlers who have been banned for suspect bowling actions are suffering from kinks, which once corrected should allow them to reintegrate with international cricket. He added that he would always give a bowler the benefit of the doubt before he passes a judgment on his action.

"Personally I don't think we should see chucking as a crime as such. It is just a technical fault that people have. So if you have a technical fault in the action, you correct that and come back. When you overstep the line, nobody says you are cheating. You say, okay, come back behind the line. And here we are saying, come back within 15 degrees [of elbow flexion] and play the game," Dravid said in an interaction with the audience after delivering the annual Dilip Sardesai Memorial Lecture.

In the past few months, several bowlers have been called up for tests by the ICC and subsequently banned if they failed to demonstrate a legal bowling action. The most notable examples have been Sri Lanka offspinner Sachithra Senanayke and his Pakistan counterpart Saeed Ajmal, arguably the best spinner in the world at the moment.

"I think the ICC has a rule in place," Dravid said. "They reviewed a lot of the old footage and they found out that the elbow bent to about 15 degrees was pretty normal and that is what everyone was doing. Glenn McGrath had a slight bend in his elbow up to 15 degrees. I am not suggesting that Glenn McGrath was chucking. They have a system in place and what I am glad about is that they are really enforcing it strictly.

"They are reviewing people, they are getting people caught. I give them the benefit of the doubt. I always give the bowler the benefit of the doubt. Murali went through every test possible at that time so you have to give him the benefit of doubt. What the ICC is doing now is they are being vigilant. What they are saying is that if once you are cleared in 2009, you can't [not] be checked again. You have got to keep monitoring, watching it closely and they see bowlers developing new types of deliveries, then why not go into the lab and have it checked."

The discussion then veered to the health of the three formats of cricket and Dravid said ODIs were being put under pressure by "meaningless games"

"I think one-day cricket is seriously struggling," he said. "I definitely think that one-day cricket without a context is struggling. When you think of one-day cricket from a point of view of Champions Trophy and the World Cup, it is relevant. But I think all the other one-day cricket should be given towards playing the Champions Trophy and the World Cup. And then you've got Test cricket and you've got the T20 format of the game. Meaningless one-day games and too many one-day games can actually be a problem and it is something that can be cut off. You should play lesser one-day cricket and play more tournaments. So Champions Trophy and World Cup, I would go for it, definitely."

Questions were also raised regarding young Indian cricketers' seriousness towards playing Tests after the team's meek surrender in the recent tour of England. Dravid, however, backed the next generation, saying he never got a sense of them not being serious about Tests during his week-long stint as a consultant with the Indian team ahead of the five-Test series.

"When people say that some of our boys don't care about Test cricket, that's completely wrong. Because all they are asking me is, 'how did you do well?'. They are not worried about a T20 game coming up. They are only interested in knowing how did we do well in England, how did we do well in Australia. Virat Kohli is asking those questions all the time. I don't think it is that they don't care. They care deeply but they were found out against a really good bowling attack on a difficult wicket. And they were not good enough in those particular Test matches. But I think they do care [about Tests] and they ask those questions."

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MacLeod the winner, Mooney the hero

Scotland 243 for 2 (MacLeod 116*, Gardiner 89) beat Ireland 241 for 9 (Mooney 96, Haq 5-54) by eight wickets
Scorecard

In an ideal world, the ball would have flashed off John Mooney's blade, dissecting the two fielders stationed backward of point. It would have raced across the outfield and over the rope. It would have brought up his maiden ODI century. It would have prompted Malahide to rise in unison. It would have been a soul-stirring moment. But, this is not a perfect world, nor do such fairy tales regularly transpire.

As it was, Richie Berrington stooped forward, snaffled a low chance and ended an innings of consummate quality from a player who, less than twenty-four hours previous, had bravely revealed the full extent of his battle with depression.

Fittingly, all four corners of the ground rose in appreciation. It did not matter that the score under his name remained four short of a century or that Ireland's total was significantly under-par because, in the grand scheme of things, such particulars are irrelevant. The sight of Mooney back in the green apparel is enough in itself.

In the event, it was an innings that glued Ireland together against a purposeful Scottish side infused with a determination to wrestle a semblance of pride back following two underwhelming performances earlier in the week. Calum MacLeod's second ODI century ensured the visitors left with some positives to take before their World Cup preliminaries begin in earnest later this month.

The same top-order that had looked so helplessly vulnerable against the moving ball hitherto made light work of the target as they chased down 242 with minimal fuss. It was Scotland's first ODI win on Irish soil and was manufactured by a disciplined bowling performance led by Majid Haq's first five-wicket haul in the format.

It was little surprise that Preston Mommsen asked Ireland to bat first under cloud-laden skies. It was perhaps unfortunate that the outcome of a match was determined so considerably by the toss of a coin but it was another thing to ensure you made best use of such favourable conditions. Certainly, Scotland were resolute not to let the opportunity slip and built the platform for their wounded batsmen to flex their muscles.

The absence of Kyle Coetzer and Matt Machan has been felt significantly but in MacLeod they have an opening batsman enjoying the best form of his career; it showed here. A breakthrough season at Durham, particularly against the white ball, has raised genuine hopes that he is a player of the calibre Scotland have so desperately craved in recent years.

There was no sign of the hesitation that undermined his failures earlier in the week as he tucked into some charitable bowling from the hosts, who looked weary before wilting in the late afternoon Dublin sun. MacLeod formed a match-defining partnership with Hamish Gardiner, who may be looking over his shoulder nervously with Coetzer and Machan to return to the side.

The pair saw off the initial threat of Max Sorensen and Craig Young before taking advantage of easier circumstances as they matched each other blow for blow. That was until Gardiner, eleven short of a first century in Scottish colours, fell attempting to cut the part-time spin of Andrew Balbirnie.

Phil Simmons and the selectors will name an 18-man squad for the pre-World Cup tour to Australia and New Zealand on Monday and, while a series win was already assured, this reversal is a timely wake-up call.

Graeme McCarter is expected to miss out despite bowling eight economical overs with Young, who moved his tally of wickets for the week to nine with the early dismissal of Matty Cross, now ahead of him in the pecking order. None of the batsmen on the fringes added much weight to their case for inclusion on a morning during which Ireland stuttered and stumbled.

While they were able to negate the early advances of Scotland's new ball bowlers, albeit at a pedestrian pace, Haq's introduction in the 17th over paid instant dividends. Stuart Thompson feathered the offspinner behind to Cross and four balls later Andrew Poynter missed a straight one that went on with the arm. Mooney, however, added steel to the innings.

A towering six down the ground off MacLeod set the wheels in motion as he accelerated through the gears. Kevin O'Brien's departure, the ball after the second drinks break, halted Ireland's recovery after they had slipped to 95 for 4 but Mooney wasn't deterred.

It was his first half-century in four years and, in stepping down the pitch to Haq and crunching an expansive drive through cover, he brought up his highest ODI score, overtaking his previous best of 55. The fireworks were to come, though. An audacious reverse sweep which flew over the rope had the crowd purring and when he took Michael Leask for 12 off the 46th over, he moved within touching distance of three figures. It wasn't to be.

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