An old-fashioned performance from an old-fashioned bowling attack, purred the second string of Sky Sports' punditry team during today's interval at Grace Road.

Here in Dublin an old-fashioned technical oversight brought a premature end to your blogger's attempt to view a magnificent start to the Saltires' CB40 campaign.

Just as Ryan Watson and George Bailey were beginning to build on the excellent use of Powerplay No 1 in the pursuit of 218, Charles Colville announced that we now had a choice of what to watch. Trouble was, you don't have a choice when you don't have a red button.

Long story short: a few brown envolopes that changed hands in the halcyon heyday of the Celtic Tiger meant my apartment block is monopolised by NTL, or whatever they call themselves these days. You need Sky Digital, rather than cable, to have a red button and, therefore, a choice. No dishes and no choice around here, so Rafa Nadal and Roger Federer it was.

Pity that, because this was developing into a gripping spectacle for the few cricket fans whose attention was not solely fixed on the Kensington Oval. Foxes v Saltires never promised to rival England v Australia for spectacle, and the pre-season verdict of Gavin Hamilton rang loud and clear in a satisfyingly pedestrian Leicestershire innings.

"We are very realistic about where we are at the moment in terms of the bowling," the Scotland captain said in our season preview. "We're probably never going to blow away teams and bowl teams out for not a lot, but if we stick to what we're good at, be very disciplined and stick to our game plan, that's really the only avenue we can go down."

Cue the sniffy, reluctant admiration of Messrs Willis, Allott and Colville as the military-medium carriers of the Saltire flame limited Leicestershire's scoring options throughout the 40 overs.
This is a genre of performance that has become a Scots-Irish trademark in this era of progress without pace. Except when Boyd Rankin is right on the money, both countries' fielding strategies are based on accuracy and containment, and not aggression, and Neil Laidlaw looks to have quickly grasped this necessity.

The Edinburgh-born newcomer from York looks athletic and slippery with an off-putting action, the kind that wouldn't have survived this far had he come under a professional umbrella. He would be quicker, for example, if his spikes would part with the turf at the crease but these are not times to be picky and Jim Love's intervention, directing his ambition northwards, is very welcome.

Laidlaw's ever-so-slight inswingers were too good today for a few county pros and, once or twice, Marc Petrie. Not that Scotland's cherubic wicketkeeper from Arbroath had a dodgy day. Far from it: his glovework was immaculate in the conventional stance and encouragingly adept when standing up.

Overall, the Saltires were by their own standards excellent in the field, and, on a county scale, okay. Ryan Watson's failure to pocket Greg Smith in Laidlaw's first over felt ominous but he made it up for it with a blinding dive to remove the same player and a direct hit to dispense with James Taylor.

There were other minor glitches - Gordon Goudie got bored of his relentless economy at one point and lost a slower ball for six, then two wides that cost the same sum - and run-out chances went a-begging, but by and large Hamilton's tactical advice was carried out to the letter. Taking pace off the ball, in Jeremy Coney's words, "manacled" the home side after their odd decision to bat first.

It must be said that Leicestershire, the second-worst team in this group on paper and whose scalp the more seasoned men in the squad should have targeted, contributed to their demise. Paul Nixon's eccentric decision to call for the batting powerplay at the 30-over mark, for example, blew up in his face.

Then again, Hamilton reacted intelligently to that development, keeping on his spinners to hang on to control, and it was now we knew for sure that the Saltires were in with a sniff. That conviction never faded for your blogger as he watched Bailey, Berrington and McCallum enact a buccaneering run chase. Not on Sky Sports 4 but via CricketEurope's online commentary - the only channel you can trust.