Dougie Lockhart's delight at recall ruined by England

Jun 24 2010 Matthew Leslie

Strauss' men in unforgiving mood as Scots are crushed by seven wickets

Nice to be back despite the result was West batting ace Dougie Lockhart's verdict after his Scotland recall.

The Glaswegian's sports personality of 2009 had been given the cold shoulder from Scotland's one-day squad since the disasterous 2007 World Cup campaign.

Despite being continued to be picked for the four-day test match team, selectors had made it clear that Lockhart was no longer part of their one-day international plans.

Even though his superb displays with the bat won West promotion to the top-flight in 2008 and saw them narrowly lose out on the Premier title itself last year, the beaks of Edinburgh wouldn't open the door.

While Lockhart retained a dignified silence on the issue, many within the game voiced their disbelief with West's overseas professional from last year, Andrew Ellis, summing it up best as: "...a bloody disgrace he's not in".

However, good form cannot be ignored and Lockhart was back in for last week's match against England, hitting a solid knock of 46 to stop a batting collapse as the English threatened to bowl the Saltires out for a low score. Despite guiding his nation to a respectable 211, Lockhart's efforts were in vain as England captain Andrew Strauss and fellow opener Craig Kieswetter tore the Scottish attack to pieces for an easy seven wicket victory.

Lockhart said:"It was good to be back after so long and I'm delighted to have played for the team again - especially against the current World Twenty/20 champions.

"It was also nice to get a few runs as well although sadly it didn't prove to be enough to really give them a bigger target to chase.

"We should have done better as it was a belter of a wicket with superb weather conditions.

"The conditions for good batting were there and we did look good early on and were maybe seeing a possible total of 240 or 250.

"But England then brought on their spinners and we all know what a top quality bowler Graeme Swann is.

"They applied some pressure to our batsman and with some good fielding, they restricted our run flow and we lost some wickets at crucial times."

Despite losing Ryan Watson in the first over, departing skipper Gavin Hamilton and Kyle Coetzer put on 86 for the second wicket with the latter hitting a fine half-century.

However,once England prised those two out, the middle order collapsed with only Lockhart managing to put up any form of resistance.

He added: "At 150 for seven, things were looking bleak but myself and the tail managed to steady the ship and get us past the 200 mark.

"However, such a score was still a fragile one and we had to bowl well from the off to stay in the game.

"Unfortunately, for the first 10 overs of England's reply, our seamers struggled to get the right line and length. "When your bowling is wayward, top class players like Strauss and Kieswetter do not need asking twice to cash in and they duly did.

"When we brought our spinners on, that seemed to make a difference but it was too late by then as the damage had been done.

"Now we've got to put this defeat to one side and learn from the mistakes that we made with the double-header against India's A squad (today and Friday at Titwood). It will be tough but if we can be on our game then hopefully it might turn in our favour."