SCOTLAND captain Fraser Watts challenged Warwickshire coach Ashley Giles to pick Navdeep Poonia after the stylish batsman top-scored with a fine 75 in a six-wicket defeat against Derbyshire.
Poonia and the Saltires face Lancashire at Old Trafford today and Watts believes that his team can take confidence from an improved performance in the East Midlands.
"You could see from the off that Navdeep was in serious form and he has sent a st
atement to Ashley Giles saying 'pick me'," Watts said. "We would be happy for him to not be playing for us in a funny way because getting in the Warwickshire side is his bread-and-butter stuff.
"He is a great lad to have in the changing room and he is obviously a quality batter. But I would much rather have him playing for Warwickshire than for us because it helps his career and helps him improve as a player.
"We can take a lot of positives out of today because we bowled and fielded very well and batted well for most of the innings," he continued. "Hopefully it will give us the confidence to go and get a win tomorrow."
Scotland were put into bat in overcast conditions after losing the toss at the County Ground, and South African international Charl Langeveldt quickly had them in trouble by dismissing both openers.
Poonia led the fight-back as he played the dominant role in a partnership of 48 for the third wicket with Colin Smith which had the Saltires handily placed at 82-2 in the 18th over. Smith was caught behind fencing at one that bounced, but Poonia was undeterred as he raced to a run-a-ball fifty with consecutive boundaries off England all-rounder Rikki Clarke. Gavin Hamilton shared in a fourth-wicket stand of 48 before he became Langeveldt's third victim and – after scoring 75 from 98 balls – Poonia was caught behind with the score on 156.
McCallum played on to Lungley one ball later and – once John Blain and Craig Wright had tamely given their wickets away to catches in the outfield – Scotland had lost four wickets for two runs and were 158-8.
A 54-minute rain stoppage reduced the match to a 46 overs-a-side, but a wicket for Clarke, and Langeveldt's fourth dismissal mopped up the tail to leave the Saltires 169 all out in 42.1 overs.
Chasing a Duckworth-Lewis revised target of 166, the Phantoms had comfortably reached 22-0 off six overs when rain intervened again.
The target was adjusted to 136 in 34 overs and Derbyshire cruised towards victory with an opening stand of 71 between Chris Rogers and Stephen Stubbings.
Stubbings and John Sadler were dismissed by the off-spin of Glenn Rogers, but his namesake Chris Rogers kept the Phantoms on course by reaching his fifty off 68 balls with seven fours.
Gordon Drummond gave the Saltires a glimmer of hope by removing the Australian half-centurion and Rikki Clarke in quick succession towards the end. But Dom Telo and James Pipe scrambled together the remaining runs to win with 2.2 overs remaining.
The full article contains 532 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
