| Match | 436 |
| Date | Wednesday 20 July 1994. |
| Venue | Hamilton Crescent, Glasgow |
| Result | England (Amateur) won by 9 wickets. |
| Type | Triple Crown - One-day match. (55 overs) |
| Debuts | None. |
| Finales | None. |
| Report | The 1994 Triple Crown was well organised by Scotland. Ireland played two matches in Glasgow and one at The Grange in Edinburgh. Ireland had not visited the latter venue since 1966. The results were the exact opposite of those of 1993. Ireland lost to England and Scotland but beat Wales in a "dead" match on the third day. Scotland beat England on the last day to win the Tournament (each having won two matches) by a decimal point in a complicated system of producing a winner, should two teams tie at the top. Ireland brought 13 players. These were the 11 who had played -v- New Zealand at Comber plus Hoey and Curry. Curry cried off and Doak came into the party but did not play in any of the three games. Rea was the other left out of this match -v- England. Only six of the Irish team which beat England at Edgbaston in 1993 remained. On the other hand England retained eight players from that match including the first four in the batting order. On the plumb Hamilton Crescent pitch Ireland were no match for England on this occasion. They were outplayed in all departments! Ireland won the toss and batted. They struggled at the start and lost three wickets for 42. Lewis and Benson then put on 87 and Rao and Cooke did well towards the end but one had the impression that 212 would not be enough on this pitch. So it proved. England lost but one wicket and won in the 48th over. Arnold and Roshier were a good and lively opening pair. Warke was out in the fifth over. He got a faint touch to Arnold with no foot movement. 14-1-3. Uel Graham was LBW to the second ball he faced, half forward to Arnold, 14-2-0. Smyth and Lewis added 28 and England brought on French and slow left armer, Ellwood. Smyth dabbled at Ellwood in the 16th over and was caught at the wicket. Benson joined Levas in the best stand of the innings. 87 were put on in 25 overs straddling the lunch interval. At lunch, 36 overs, the score was 106 for 3, Lewis 43, Benson 32. All now depended on acceleration. Benson cut loose and in successive overs hit two fours and a six which brought up his 50. In four overs 23 were scored. 250 looked possible. Then Benson swung wildly and was stumped in the 41st over. 128-4-51. Rao joined Lewis but the next four overs yielded but 16. Then Lewis gave Evans his second wicket, carefully picking out the fielder at long on. 145-5-57. 10 Overs remained, but in the next five the scoring never really "took off". 27 were put on before Harrison was run out at 172, just after Rao hit his only boundary. Cooke hit two such in the last five overs but Arnold and French restricted Rao and Cooke to 40 runs in those five overs. Only eight balls were not scored off in those five overs and it was the best rate of the innings but not enough. Benson and Lewis had both got out at just the wrong moments. Elwood bowled his 11 overs of spin for 33, Roshier went for 38 and Evans for 36 including two wickets. Umpire Brown was struck on the knee by Benson and was replaced at lunch by Umpire Wylie. At 3.30 p.m. Dean and Waterton opened to Moore and leg spinner Hoey. The latter had trapped Dean early at Edgbaston in 1993. Not so this year although Hoey was treated with caution, 15 runs in a six over spell. Moore went for 20 runs in five overs including a Dean six. Cooke bowled one over, changed ends, but his three over spell cost 20. Dean hit Harrison for a six and Harrison's five over spell cost 23. After 20 overs the score was 84 of which Dean had made 51. At 90 Dean gave a chance to Smyth in Rao's first over. Tea arrived after 25 overs at 105, Dean 67, Waterton 30. The only England wicket fell in the 28th over. Rao dived to his right in the gully and caught Waterton two handed off Hoey. 120-1-37. Dean's 100 came up in over 33 out of 145. In the next over (Hoey) he gave a chance, sharp to Rao in the gully, this after taking 15 off a Rao over. Dean hit his fifth and sixth sixes off successive balls from Harrison, whose nine overs cost 49 runs. With Roberts keeping pace 200 came up in 45 overs and the match was over three overs later. It was a salutary lesson for Ireland. Only Hoey emerged with credit among the bowlers. He took the only wicket and bowled 11 overs for 27. Dean's 130 came off 154 balls with six sixes and six fours. His placements for lesser amounts of runs were excellent. He was the obvious Man-of-the-Match winner. Derek Scott |