Cricket: Macca gets thumbs-up as Saltires go close

But while the Saltires' performance lacked a wow factor it was respectable enough against full-time pros leaving Steindl to rightly acknowledge notable cameos not only from McCallum, who made 53 off 51 balls, but also Preston Mommsen who made 45 on his first international outing at the Grange while earning his 15th cap, Josh Davey (32) and the wicket-keeping of Gregor Maiden.

In addition, opener Fraser Watts' innings of 27 before being bowled round his legs by Matthew Spriegel was sufficient to take him into third place in the all-time Scottish international run-making charts ahead of Ayr's Bruce Patterson.

Steindl refused to hide from the fact that Scotland lost what was their fifth straight encounter this season through slack bowling and fielding at the start and finish of the Surrey knock - the visitors were 93-2 after ten overs - but he said of McCallum's first appearance at this level since the Inter-Continental Cup final with Afghanistan in December: "Neil batted well. We have lots of options in the middle order and Macca certainly came back and showed why we are always keen to get him back.

"He just needed some cricket and Macca believed that as well.

"Preston Mommsen was looking good and Josh Davey timed the ball nicely.

"We take the positives and very quickly address the areas we think we are under-performing in."

Watts' time at the crease included a bizarre over which saw scores of 1, 2, 3, 4 and even a five due to overthrows being registered.

Referring to the Carlton captain's 40-run opening partnership with Ryan Flannigan (17), of Watsonians, Steindl said: "There were improvements in some of the areas we felt we hadn't performed in. The first eight overs batting was the best effort we have had to date.

"In the middle overs, batting wise, we are doing our job in scoring off a good number of deliveries and getting targets we set ourselves.

"Another total of around 201 is up on last year but we need to keep targeting that up to around 250 as a team goal.

"Bowling-wise it was a good comeback after the first ten overs when they scored 93.

"We pegged them back in the next 10-15 overs but we gave away a few runs in the batting power play making it a tough ask.

"It was a more manageable target until the last couple of overs and we had a couple of runout chances to stem that. Those small margins are that if you take a wicket then it might have been 235 to chase but all of a sudden its 257."

Pick of the Scottish attack was spinner Majid Haq who bowled his eight overs for 32 and picked up a couple of wickets.

Within the Surrey innings which saw the second ten overs yield just 35 runs wicketkeeper Maiden produced a slick stumping to dismiss Jason Roy off Haq and held a towering catch to remove ex-England star Gareth Batty.

But the highlight was undoubtedly a full-length diving catch with which the acrobatic Mommsen accounted for Zander du Bruyn and at that stage, with five wickets down for 156, the visitors were looking apprehensive.

Alas, after hitting just one boundary on his way to a half century Spriegel chose to cut loose in match-winning fashion. His subsequent scoring shots were 4, 4, 1, 6, 4, 1, 6, 4.

If that swung the contest decisively Surrey's way the Saltires, who were forced to omit Australian hired hand Luke Butterworth due to a recurrence of a toe injury, at least died with their boots on.

"Everyone went for their shots until the last two overs when defeat became inevitable," added Steindl.

"Neil McCallum was swinging at every one, Gordon Drummond was swinging at every one and Preston Mommsen as well.

"We wanted to get as near the total as possible remembering we are up against international class bowlers. We gave it a good crack."