Smith heeds Scottish notice

Early-morning rain left the game at the Oval in doubt but conditions had brightened up considerably by three hours before the scheduled 1.30pm start.
Scotland got in a seven-over-per-side match in between the showers on Saturday, with their batsmen giving New Zealand a real fright (compiling 89 from their allocation) only for a below-par fielding display to let their opponent off the hook.
Nonetheless, the South African skipper saw enough from the Scots to guard against complacency.
"It was a good thing to remind us how important Sunday is," said Smith.
"At the end of the day we are a talented team, we are a strong team and the level we play at should be higher than the level that Scotland can manage.
"They can have good performances on the day but we must make sure that we are operating at a higher level than Scotland.

"We should be producing better performances, we should be thinking better, we should be executing our plans better and we should be at the maximum of our intensity throughout the 20 overs."
South Africa go into their tournament opener without any injury problems while Scotland continue to suffer from the absence of seam bowling options following the withdrawals of John Blain (personal reasons) and John Blain (finger injury).
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John Blain replace to boost Scotland Cricket for T20 World Cup

The Scotland cricket team have been allowed to replace John Blain in the squad preparing for World Twenty20 after the experienced fast bowler walked out on the team following a training ground bust-up with Gavin Hamilton, the team captain, and Peter Steindl, the coach.
“John Blain decided he didn't want to be part of the squad,” Roddy Smith, the Cricket Scotland chief executive, said yesterday. “He is a grown man so we respect his decision and will move on to prepare for the tournament without him. It is entirely his decision.”

Calum MacLeod, the Warwickshire bowler who had been one of the controversial omissions from the original squad, joined the rest of the party yesterday as the replacement and could feature in today's warm-up game against England at Trent Bridge.

As far as Blain is concerned, it appears that matters came to a head after the match on Saturday against Bangladesh, when Scotland dropped catches during a sloppy fielding performance and lost with more than an over to go. Captain and coach, who have been demanding improvements from the players since their near-humiliation in South Africa earlier this year, were deeply unhappy with the performance in the field and made no secret of their anger in the post-match briefing.

Blain was among the worst culprits, his four overs disappearing for 43 runs, but he appears to have reacted badly to being one of those singled out for criticism after that performance. What is unclear - Blain could not be contacted yesterday - was whether he has retired permanently or may reconsider when Scotland's international programme resumes in the autumn.


This is the latest of a series of problems to hit the Scotland squad, who have gone backwards in status and results since 2005, when they were the best of the associate nations. While Ireland enjoyed a remarkable World Cup in 2007, Scotland failed to win a game and they have struggled since then on the county circuit. Earlier this year they capped it all by failing to qualify for the next World Cup and coming perilously close to dropping out of the international tier altogether.

In that period, they have gone through four coaches and last month Ryan Watson resigned as captain after a wretched run of personal form. Hamilton replaced him and has been quick to make his mark, demanding a more professional, hard-working approach and an end to the sloppy habits that had crept in. “The team don't need bringing together, they have never been apart,” Smith said. “They are working hard to improve and nobody else has got upset by any criticism.” The big task for Hamilton and Steindl is not to let this get in the way of preparations for today's game against England. They need a strong performance to boost confidence before their matches against New Zealand and South Africa at the weekend.

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