Botha and Cusack give Ireland lead but rain has final say

Ireland's Andre Botha on his way to a career-best 186 against Scotland at Stormont © Rowland White

Centuries from Andre Botha and Alex Cusack made sure Ireland took first innings points on the fourth and final day of a rain-affected ICC Intercontinental Cup match against arch-rivals Scotland at Stormont on Sunday.

Botha made a career-best 186 and Cusack, on his first-class debut, hit 130 as Ireland passed Scotland's first-innings total of 315 with five wickets in hand.

With a full day's play having been washed out on Saturday and the entire morning session on Sunday going the same watery way, an outright victory for either side was never really on the cards. But Ireland take the six points from securing an innings lead along with three more for the rain-affected draw.

Ireland resumed around lunchtime still 135 runs behind with six wickets left and promptly lost Niall O'Brien for 84, which would have given the Stormont faithful a brief cause for concern.

But if the Scots thought they had a chance, Botha and Cusack had other ideas and the pair put on a further 234 runs for the sixth wicket before Botha was finally stumped by Simon Smith off the bowling of Ross Lyons just 14 runs short of what would have been a maiden double hundred for the 31-year-old left-hander.

Cusack later passed the magical three figures and he reached 130 before edging one to Smith off the bowling of another first-class debutant Richard Berrington.

The pick of the bowling for Scotland was former captain Craig Wright who took 3-93 while Dewald Nel chipped in with two wickets.

Ireland had reached 473-7 when the rain returned and, perhaps fittingly, had the final say as the match was drawn.

By the regulations of the ICC Intercontinental Cup, three points are awarded to both teams in matches where more than eight hours in total are lost due to rain, over and above any points awarded by virtue of one side getting an innings lead. As such, Ireland takes nine points from the match and Scotland three.

The ICC Intercontinental Cup has quickly grown in stature and profile since its inception three years ago and now the ICC's premier first-class tournament is an integral part of the Associate Members' cricket schedule.

Having previously been designed around a two-group, three-day format, the event has evolved into an eight-team, round-robin and truly global tournament featuring four-day cricket which gives those teams who do not play Test cricket the chance to experience the longer form of the game.

Scotland won the first ICC Intercontinental Cup in 2004, beating Canada in the final, while Ireland has been victorious in both events since then, beating Kenya in the 2005 decider and Canada earlier this year in the 2006-07 event.

The final of the ICC Intercontinental Cup 2007-08 will take place in November 2008 at a venue yet to be decided.