Preview of Scotland v Pakistan ODI

On Tuesday 27 June Scotland will meet Pakistan in Edinburgh. This will be the tenth time the sides will have met with Scotland still to record a victory against their opponents. It is also Scotland's first official One Day International since becoming the ICC's leading Associate Member Nation.

The first match between the two teams took place at the same venue fifty two years ago when a three day game took place. Batting first Scotland made 353 for 7 declared thanks to fine knocks by William Nichol, top scoring with 93, and James Aitchison, Ronnie Chisholm and Jack Mendl. In reply Pakistan with Waqar Hassan making 72 were all out for 295. Nichol again featured taking 4 for 46 and he was well supported by Clydesdale's. William Edward who took 4 for 59. The Scots in their second innings could not repeat their batting feats and were shot out for 51 with Mahmood Hussain returning the impressive figures of 11.2 overs 4 maidens 6 for 17. This left the visitors 110 runs to win which they reached without loss.

It was seventeen years before the next match took place this time at Philiphaugh Selkirk, the last time this ground was to host a full international match. It was again a three day match . This time Pakistan batted first and they declared on 183 for 9 at the end of day 1. The prime destroyer of the Pakistan batting was James Allan with his slow left arm deliveries who finished with 7 for 54. including the wicket of a youthful Imran Khan caught by Perthshire's Ralph Laing. Scotland in reply had no answer to the off spin of Mohammad Nazir and Saeed Ahmed who between them took 9 wickets for 64 runs as Scotland were dismissed for just 118. In the second innings Pakistan declared on 181 for 6 leaving Scotland to score 247 for victory. Again the Scots had no answer to Nazir as he claimed 6 wickets for 26 as Scotland fell 154 runs short.

The next match took place 11 years later at Titwood Glasgow when Pakistan captained by Imran Khan batted first in a two day match and raced to 351 for 4 declared in 55 overs. Wasim Raja was the destroyer of the Scottish batting hitting 174 off 123 deliveries. He was well supported by Javed Miandad with 54 not out and Mudassar Nazar 47 not out who later went on to record the slowest Test century when he batted for 9 hours 17 minutes against England in 1977. In reply the Scottish batsmen apart from Willie Donald were blown away by the pace of Imran Khan who took 5 for 24 as Scotland were 111 for 5 at stumps at the end of day 1 with Donald 53 not out . The whole of the second day was washed out due to rain and the match ended in a draw.

Since 1982 Scotland have only played Pakistan in one day matches meeting six times ( 4 of them friendlies) with Pakistan winning 5 and the other ending in a no result as rain forced the abandonment of the Commonwealth Games match in 1998 in Kuala Lumpur, when Scotland were 31 for 3 chasing Pakistan's 201 for 5.

In 1987 Pakistan captained by Javed Miandad won by 75 runs at Titwood, and the same venue hosted the match in 1992 when Pakistan again batted first and won by 38 runs when the match was decided under the Duckworth Lewis method. Pakistan had made 235 all out in their innings and Scotland were 108 all out with Mustaq Ahmed taking 6 wickets for 43 runs.

In 1996 the match returned to Raeburn Place with Pakistan again batting first and they closed their innings on 286 for 5 with Shadab Kabir top scoring with 135. In reply Scotland were handily placed at 80 for 2 before the introduction of Saqlain Mushtaq, currently one of Ireland's contracted Overseas Players was introduced to the attack and his 4 for 35 meant Scotland fell 108 runs short.

Scotland after their heroics in Malaysia in 1997 had qualified for the World Cup for the first time and one of their opponents in the group section was Pakistan. The match took place at Chester-Le-Street in May 1999 with Scotland winning the toss and asking Pakistan to bat first. The Scottish bowlers had the upper hand in the early stages as the white ball swung around and had Pakistan in some trouble at 92 for 5, however as the ball got older the lower order batsmen got on top of the bowling with Yousuf Youhana unbeaten on 81, Moin Khan out for 47 and captain Wasim Akram unbeaten on 37. This meant that Scotland were chasing 262 for victory before a large and vociferous crowd.

They were soon in trouble at 19 for 5 as Akram and the 'Rawalpindi Express' Shoaib Akhtar blew away the top order. A defiant and well constructed 76 by Gavin Hamilton with support from Ian Stanger and Alec Davies enabled Scotland to reach 167 all out in the thirty ninth over.

The most recent meeting between the two sides, and the closest, took place in June 2003 when Pakistan ran out by 1 wicket at Hamilton Crescent Glasgow. Pakistan won the toss and decided to field. Scotland with 36 from Greig Williamson and 31 from Gregor Maiden were all out in the forty sixth over for 169. Included in the Scotland team that day was the current Indian captain Rahul Dravid who was out first ball, a sight that does not happen too often. The total did not look like troubling the Pakistani batsmen.

However the Scottish attack had other ideas with all the bowlers showing good discipline and the match was in the balance all the way. Only an unbeaten 52 from Shoaib Malik batting at number six saw the visitors home by 1 wicket and 3 overs to spare.

From the teams of four years ago only Ryan Watson, Colin Smith, Ian Stanger, Craig Wright and Paul Hoffmann are likely to line up against Pakistan, who have only Younis Khan, Shoaib Malik, Umar Gul and Danish Kaneria in a much changed Pakistan squad.

Scotland are boosted by the release of Kyle Coetzer and John Blain from their County commitments and hope to have Navdeep Poonia who has played at youth level available. He made his debut for Warwickshire last Sunday scoring 59 when he opened the batting against Nottinghamshire, but the English County side has refused Dougie Brown permission to play as he is required for a Twenty/20 Cup match.

The Pakistanis are a mixture of youth and experience and the talented side is led by Inzamam-ul-Haq. They will give Scotland a severe test whatever side they put out. They have players who are used to the Scottish type of conditions with wicket-keeper batsman Kamran Akmal having played for two seasons in Northern Ireland with Limavady where he had a very successful time. He scored 160 in the North West Cup final the second highest score ever in the competition. Also in their squad is Shahid Afridi who has just finished his spell with Ireland in the C & G Trophy as an Overseas Player.

Akmal was one of the stars in the winter when England met Pakistan making his highest Test score of 154 in Lahore. Also in the side is Mohammad Yousuf who in the same match in Lahore made 223.

Although the 'Rawalpindi Express' will be missing due to injury their bowling line up has much quality with all rounder Afridi and leg spinner Danish Kaneria being joined in the squad by Naved-ul-Hasan and Mohammad Sami.

The squads are:-

Scotland: Craig Wright (captain), John Blain, Kyle Coetzer, Gavin Hamilton, Paul Hoffmann, Douglas Lockhart, Ross Lyons, Neil McCallum, Neil MacRae, Dewald Nel, Navdeep Poonia, Colin Smith, Ryan Watson, Fraser Watts.

Pakistan: Inzamam-ul-Haq (captain), Shoaib Malik, Imran Farhat, Salman Butt, Younis Khan, Mohammad Yousuf, Faisal Iqbal, Shahid Afridi, Abdul Razzaq, Kamran Akmal, Mohammad Asif, Umar Gul, Naved-ul-Hasan, Shahid Nazir, Mohammad Sami, Danish Kaneria.