Siddle makes Scotland struggle in the sun

Australia A 372/8d & 165/4 (35.0 ov)
Scotland 149ao

Australia A lead by 388 runs with 6 wickets remaining 

Day 2: Morning Session
The players were greeted to conditions more familiar to Melbourne than Edinburgh when they arrived at the Grange Club for the second of the four day encounter
with Australia A.
With the new ball only a few overs old Wardlaw and Goudie carried on bowling from where they left off yesterday evening, with the aim of bowling Australia A out before the lunch interval.
Goudie was the first bowler to strike from the pavilion end, trapping Pattinson (20) LBW in the 6th over of the day.
An over later, Wardlaw was unlucky not to claim his third wicket of the innings as Siddle nervously passed his highest first-class score. The batsmen spooned a catch to the running MacLeod, but the Scot was unable to hold on to one of the more simpler chances of the innings.
Having given Siddle another life, he made no mistake in registering his maiden first-class century as Australia “A” progressed to 369/7.
Wardlaw did eventually secure his third wicket, having Ashton Agar caught by Cross, as the Australian tail-enders attempted to play a few shots.
Brad Haddin signalled the declaration after 45 minutes of play on day two, looking to pile the pressure on the Scottish top order.
Josh Davey and Matt Machan opened Scotland’s reply and were watchful to begin with, showing the Australian openers, James Pattinson and Chad Sayers, plenty of respect.
Machan showed his timing by sending Sayers through cover for two fours in the same over, demonstrating good attacking intent when the chances arose.
Davey had yet to get off the mark when he got a fine edge off Pattinson’s bowling, but the catch was dropped at first slip by Alex Doolan.
The Australian “A” outfit weren’t left to rue that missed chance, as only two balls later Doolan made amends by holding on another edge from Davey.
By now Pattinson was on fire, bowling several deliveries that swung away from the batsmen and then the one that went the other way that really had the Scottish batsmen in trouble.
Although Scotland had lost an early wicket, Machan looked in his element, and comfortably reached 21 off 26 balls before attempting a tight run in the covers and Nathan Lyon hitting the stumps directly which left Coleman well short of his ground.
Lyon was then introduced from the Pavilion End and had Machan stumped with only his second ball as the batsman advanced down the track and missed the ball completely.
Scotland needed a pair of batsmen to build a substantial partnership to see of this period of pressure being exerted by the world-class Australian bowling attack.
However, the Aussies were full of confidence as James Pattinson clean bowled Berrington for 1 as he tried to leave a ball that swung and sent his middle stump cartwheeling.

With an abundance of bowling talent in their armoury, the Australians were able to call upon centurion Peter Siddle after lunch to open up the afternoon session.
He and Pattinson continued to pile the pressure on the Scots batsmen, and didn’t need to wait long as Iqbal was undone by a cracking delivery from Pattinson.
Pattinson was showing exactly why he has earned 10 test match caps for the full Australian side as he bowled expertly with the swinging ball.
Captain Preston Mommsen looked to be offering some resistance to the bowlers, but soon became Siddle’s first victim as he edged a delivery through to wicketkeeper Brad Haddin.
Scotland’s total was precarious, sitting at 44-6, when Calum MacLeod joined Matthew Cross at the crease.
The pair managed to build a small partnership and take the score to 78, with Cross in particular playing some lovely shots.
In the 32nd over Cross (17) was out in unfortunate circumstances as he went to duck under a bouncer from Henriques but left his bat hanging in the air. The ball subsequently clipped the toe of his bat and was caught by Doolan at slip.
Ashton Agar then got in on the act snaring two quick victims as he proved too good for the Scottish tail-enders.
The first to go was Gordon Goudie, who forced an edge that was taken on the second attempt by Haddin; followed closely by Calvin Burnett for a duck - leaving Scotland on 83-9.
If Scotland were going to post a respectable total they needed some fireworks from the tenth wicket partnership of MacLeod and the new man Iain Wardlaw.
Wardlaw did exactly that, and treated the bowling of Moises Henriques and Lyon with distain as he raced to his highest score in first-class cricket.
He was joined by MacLeod who played some inventive shots, including the shot of the day – a reverse sweep for 4 through third man.
The pair played with intent and registered their 50 partnership off just 49 balls, MacLeod also registering his 50 with consecutive boundaries off Lyon.
The last wicket stand eventually came to an end when MacLeod (51) was caught on the boundary with Wardlaw unbeaten on 33.
Australia decided not to enforce the follow on, and an early tea was taken by the teams.

Day 2: Evening Session
Jordan Silk and Alex Doolan walked out to the middle and were greeted with the usual pairing of Goudie and Wardlaw to start the innings off.
Both bowled well and with good pace but could not find an early breakthrough on this occasion.
Goudie swapped ends in search of a new tactic and was replaced by MacLeod, who added a vital wicket to his personally successful day. He forced Silk (22) into a wild swipe outside off stump which flew straight to Machan in the slips.
The wicket came at a valuable time when the Australia A openers were beginning to get their eye in on what was still decent wicket.
Scotland were now spurred on, and were celebrating again soon after; this time the impressive Goudie had Khawaja playing a false stroke, edging to Machan who took another clean catch at second slip.
The only opener remaining, Alex Doolan, had quietly made his way to 47 with a total of 7 boundaries to his name. He was to be Burnett’s maiden first-class wicket, as Scotland took control of the innings.
Burnett pushed the ball through at a good pace and had Doolan caught in front LBW, as the umpire raising his finger to cue his celebrations.
The spin of Iqbal proved to be expensive, but it accounted for a wicket as the leg-spinner claimed the scalp of Steve Smith (18) LBW.
As the day drew to a close Ashton Agar and Moises Henriques adapted well to the situation and punished any loose bowling to steer Australia “A” to 165-4 at the close of play with a lead of 388 runs.
Reaction:
Peter Siddle said after achieving his maiden first class century, “"Yesterday it was a good opportunity to get out there and have a bit of a hit and see how it went. Today, well it was just good to get it out of the way.”
"It was nerve-wracking but I got there in the end.”
"My top score before this was 87 and I'd only been in the 90s once before in club cricket years ago. But I got it over the line eventually so it was nice to finally get myself a ton.”
"I'm not looking to move up the order though. I'm happy down at eight and nine. I just like to play my part for the team and score a few runs."
"It would have been nice to have seen a stronger batting performance from Scotland but it's credit to us for the pressure we built up on them. We bowled well early on and managed to restrict them."
Mommsen said at the end of the day, “It was a tough day, Siddle batted quite nicely but we stuck to it with the ball and managed to pick up a few wickets up front.
Batting-wise, I think our shot selection let us down a bit at key times looking back that’s hurt us badly and we need to learn our lessons quickly and make sure we refine our plans for the second innings and build a decent total.
They bowled well, but we still have the ability to build a decent total against this attack and I think Calum and Wardy at the end batted really well and showed it can be done.
When asked on the plan for tomorrow Mommsen added, “That first hour is import to get early wickets and try and get as much control as we can and stem the flow of runs and I’m sure at some point tomorrow we’ll be batting again, and it’s important we have learnt our lessons come the second innings.”