Drummond hails Berrington
Scotland skipper not surprised to pull off huge chase against Ireland
Last Updated: July 12, 2011 11:08pm
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Drummond: Was confident despite huge Ireland total
Scotland skipper Gordon Drummond paid tribute to Richie Berrington's "remarkable" innings after his huge hitting helped secure a five-wicket win over Ireland.
Berrington included six sixes in his knock of 56 from just 23 balls to reignite Scotland's chances after it looked as though they would come up short when chasing a mammoth 321 for victory.
With Scotland's previous highest total being 293 against Canada in 2007, few expected them to reach the target but Drummond never lost faith after himself being on the end of Berrington's power recently.
"He worked me for a few sixes on Sunday in a regional game and got 80 off 45 balls or something like that," Drummond said.
"I told him he shouldn't be hitting me for six, he should be saving it for today. It's a remarkable innings, phenomenal. When he went in, it was do or die, we needed that impetus."
Berrington and Josh Davey, who scored the winning runs, revived a charge that looked to be fading slightly after openers Kyle Coetzer (89) and Fraser Watts (54) had given Scotland hope.
Touch
Drummond added: "That's the thing - all our batters are in touch at the minute, they have all been scoring heavily in club cricket and regional games.
"Apart from big Boyd (Rankin), their bowling is a much of a muchness with ours. So we thought we could definitely chase this down with the confidence in the ranks, and it showed."
Ireland skipper William Porterfield was disappointed not to defend the total but dismissed suggestions his side had become complacent after setting such a big score.
He said: "We got a score that was defendable, although it wasn't as strong as we would have liked going into the last 10 overs.
"Any time you get over 300 it's a pretty good total, but we didn't execute it well. You have to give credit to the way Scotland played but I thought we were a wee bit sloppy in the field, as we have been before this summer.
"We had an intense fielding session on Sunday and I don't know why it didn't click today."
