Bermuda 106 & 265

Scotland 282 & 196-9 dec

Stephen Outerbridge scored his first century for Bermuda but still couldn't stop his side from slipping to defeat against Scotland on the last day of their Intercontinental Cup match at the National Sports Centre.

Outerbridge scored 113 from 250 balls and hit 13 fours in an innings that was full of patience, composure, and no little amount of skill.

It was an effort that deserved more than the 107-run defeat that it ended in, but in truth, the stubborn resistance that the Bailey's Bay batsman and the rest of the Bermuda side showed was always likely to be fruitless.

Given their performance in the first innings, chasing a target of 373 to win in the second appeared beyond the home team's reach.

But they got close enough to make the Scots nervous, and the manner of their fightback certainly hints at better things to come in the future.

The true test of a team's character is in their ability to recover from a setback, and having conceded such a large first innings lead it would have been easy for Bermuda to crumble.

That they restricted the visiting team to 196 in their second innings says much about their confidence and determination, and the only difference between the two teams was the disastrous first innings spell between lunch and tea on Friday when Bermuda lost seven wickets for 51 runs.

Other than that, they more than competed in every other session, and but for the freakish dismissal of Rodney Trott yesterday, may well have pulled off an improbable win.

Trott and Outerbridge had rescued the Bermuda innings when it was on the brink of collapse at 65 for four on Saturday afternoon, and then stuck around for 35 overs, eating away at Scotland's massive lead.

Although still more than two hundred runs behind, the pair had put on 88 runs and looked in complete control when Trott got out to the kind of incident that must have confirmed to Bermuda that it wasn't going to be their day.

Majid Haq, the Scotland spinner, dropped a ball short of a length, Trott pulled it, much as he had been doing all morning with great success, and the ball should have been racing away to the boundary for four.

Unfortunately this time the ball cannoned into the back of Sean Weeraratna, who was taking evasive action, at short leg, and looped into the waiting hands of Fraser Watts at mid-wicket.

The dismissal took the steam out of the Bermuda innings, and although Irving Romaine made an entertaining 27, he was hindered in his movement by a hip injury he sustained on Saturday taking a stunning catch at slip.

Romaine is likely to miss out on the Eastern Counties match next weekend, but, providing a scan today proves there is no major damage, should be fit for the trip to Ireland in two weeks' time.

The skipper did stick around long enough to see Outerbridge reach his century with two consecutive fours off Ross Lyons, the spinner, but while able to cope with the slower bowlers, struggled against the medium pace of Richie Berrington and was eventually bowled to leave Bermuda on 204 for seven.

Once Outerbridge was the next wicket to fall, any slim hope that Bermuda had of rescuing the game disappeared, and all that remained was for George O'Brien and Dwayne Leverock to provide an entertaining postscript.

Not that Scotland's bowlers were that amused by it.

Dewald Nel, Weeraratna and Gordon Goudie tried everything they could to dislodge the last two, but instead could only watch as O'Brien slashed and hooked his way into double figures as the pair put on 45 for the last wicket.

In the end it fell to Ross Lyons, who took four for 55 in the second innings to wrap up the win, when O'Brien tried one big heave too many and was caught by Berrington at leg slip.

So in the end Bermuda fell 107 runs short, but to get that close was a major achievement, and there is much to suggest that this young team will only get better with experience.

While some of the wickets they gave away in the second innings smacked of inexperience, these are things that will be easily solved with time, and it was not a lack of talent that was their undoing against Scotland, just a lack of application.

INTERCONTINENTAL CUP

BERMUDA v SCOTLAND

HAMILTON – Scotland (20pts) beat Bermuda (0pts) by 107 runs

Scotland first innings

F.Watts c S.Outerbridge b D.Leverock 93

D.Lockhart c wkt J.Edness b D.Leverock 22

Q.Sheikh c wkt J.Edness b G.O'Brien 13

R.Berrington st J.Edness b R.Trott 11

C.Smith c&b D.Leverock 17

N.McCallum b D.Leverock 25

S.Weeraratna c O.Bascome b R.Trott 7

M.Haq b D.Leverock 46

G.Goudie ct O.Pitcher b S.Kelly 7

D.Nel ct I.Romaine b D.Leverock 22

R.Lyons not out 12

Extras (1lb 2b 4nb) 7

Total (all out, 109 overs) 282

Fall of wickets: 1-42, 2-66, 3-114, 4-141, 5-182, 6-208, 7-237, 8-242, 9-262

Bowling: G.O'Brien 16.3-6-35-1, S.Kelly 20-5-52-1, D.Leverock 44-10-120-6, OJ Pitcher 3-1-6-0, R. Trott 20-4-56-2, I.Romaine 0.3-0-1-0, S.Outerbridge 5-2-9-0

Bermuda first innings

C.Foggo b M.Haq 53

O.Bascome ct R.Lyons b S.Weeraratna 6

J.Celestine b S.Weeraratna 0

S.Outerbridge ct C.Smith b S.Weeraratna 4

OJ Pitcher ct S.Weeraratna b R.Lyons 4

I.Romaine ct F.Watts b R.Lyons 0

J.Edness ct D.Lockhart b D.Nel 23

R.Trott ct C.Smith b D.Nel 2

D.Leverock ct McCallum b D.Nel 5

S.Kelly not out 0

G.O'Brien ct Q.Sheikh b D.Nel 2

Extras (1lb, 6nb) 7

Total (all out 53.2overs) 106

Fall of wickets: 1-43, 2-48, 3-63, 4-67, 5-72, 6-73, 7-94, 8-103, 9-104

Bowling: D.Nel 12.2-4-27-4, G.Goudie 9-4-16-0, M.Haq 20-7-33-1, S.Weeraratna 5-1-14-3, R.Lyons 7-1-15-2

Scotland second innings

F Watts ct Pitcher b Kelly 83

D Lockhart lbw O'Brien 1

Q Sheikh b O'Brien 9

R Berrington ct Edness b O'Brien 0

C Smith b Kelly 38

N McCallum not out 42

M Haq ct Romaine b Trott 5

S Weeraratna ct sub (Hollis) b Trott 5

G Goudie run out (O'Brien) 6

D Nel st Edness b Leverock 1

Extras (1w, 2lb, 2b, 1nb) 6

Total (53.3 overs) for 9, declared 196

Fall of wicket: 1-1, 2-22, 3-22, 4-125, 5-158, 6-170, 7-186, 8-195, 9-196

Did not bat: R Lyons.

Bowling: G O'Brien 12-2-39-3, S Kelly 15-3-47-2, D Leverock 20.3-3-76-1, R

Trott 5-0-22-2, S Outerbridge 1-0-8-0

Bermuda second innings

C Foggo ct McCallum b Lyons 4

O Bascome ct McCallum b Goudie 3

J Celestine lbw b Nel 11

S Outerbridge ct Smith b Nel 113

OJ Pitcher lbw Lyons 6

J Edness ct Smith b Lyons 0

R Trott ct Watts b Haq 28

I Romaine b Berrington 27

D Leverock not out 19

S Kelly ct Lyons b Nel 2

G O'Brien ct Berrington b Lyons 32

Extras (7w, 6lb, 2b, 5nb) 20

Total (104.4overs) 265

Fall of wicket: 1-4, 2-20, 3-65, 4-65, 5-148, 6-153, 7-204, 8-217, 9-220

Bowling: D Nel 25-7-70-3, G Goudie 19-7-34-1, S Weeraratna 9-2-23-0, M Haq 21-4-69-1, R Lyons 27.4-13-55-4, R Berrington 3-1-6-1

Umpires: Shahul Hameed, Roger Dill

Third umpire: Steven Douglas

Match referee: Lester Harnett