I must begin this match report with an autobiographical aside. I used to live in Edinburgh. I left, amongst other excellent reasons, because the city is terrifyingly cold. It is colder than Toronto in winter (and yes, I've tried both). It is scourged summer and winter by the wind off the Forth. The sun appears, but only to mock the shivering inhabitants. Edinburgh is, in the parlance of my native and superior Glasgow, f'in Baltic. And today, I made a terrible error. I went out for the day to Edinburgh in only a dress, a jaunty hat and my thickest winter coat. I forgot my scarf and gloves. I forgot my thermal vest. I forgot one of those silver heat reflective blankets. Ladies and gentlemen, this evening I still have goosebumps where no girl about town should have goosebumps. If there are parts of my recollection of events that are hazy, please take into account my hypothermic state at the time. I WAS SO DAMNED COLD, gentle reader.

But still! It was a great day, gentle reader, that I would not have missed for the world! Middlesex were coming up to "England's most northerly outpost" and it was to be a historic first. No, not the visit of the Panthers, today was to be the first day I went to the Grange and the match wasn't rained off! The day had dawned unpromisingly in the blessed Weeg, but as the train passed through the blighted hellmouth of Falkirk, things fairly brightened up, so they did. The sun was shining and I had a hot chocolate with marshmallows in. Truly this was happiness. To be fair, the funny looking bloke in the next seat could have stopped giving me strange looks, but I put this down to my stunning beauty and relaxed, content with life.

But all too soon, disaster. I shot bolt upright in my seat with such panic that my earphones fell out. Two things had suddenly occurred to me: the game began at 10:45, not 11, and I was going to miss the first fifteen minutes; moreover, I had failed to put on my concealer that morning. Swiftly, I went to work with mirror and tiny brush... and the reason for the Funny Looking Guy's sly glances at me suddenly became apparent. It was not in fact my striking resemblance to a young Catherine Deneuve that enthralled him, it was the fact that I had half a marshmallow stuck to my cheek.

When Miss Marshmallow Face finally arrived at the Grange, the first sight that greeted me was the Hughes dismissal. At least in years to come, I can tell my grandchildren I saw the great Phil Hughes trudge disconsolately back to the dressing room. Owais came in to join Nick Compton, and their partnership was... well, soporific is the word I keep coming back to. Both played reasonably well, but very conservatively. I wonder if the recent rash of batting collapses have affected the batting unit more than we think. Both looked determined not to give away their wickets, and there was a guardedness in their play that we don't often see. Owais looks a little short of time in the middle, but given his IPL experience, that's not surprising. If I note that we were 70 runs off 20 overs, that will probably tell its own story.

Just at the point where we might have expected one or both to cut loose, and as a few more flamboyant shots were being tried, Nick pulled up short in real pain with some type of leg injury. It was difficult to tell what the matter was - something muscular - but after a few balls with Hughes on as a runner for him, he went off injured, which was a real shame. He'd played sensibly at the top of the order, and has been in excellent touch recently. Chan eil saoi air nach laigh leòn, runs the local saying, and best wishes for a quick recovery. I did see him making his way round the ground a little later on, so hopefully it's not as bad as it looked.

Nick's injury brought the next best thing to God, Eoin Morgan, to the crease. Scotland looked worried. They'd been obviously relieved to get rid of Hughes, and it was clear from their body language that they urgently wanted to see the back of Morgy. Again, despite the fact he's obviously at the top of his game at the moment, he was more circumspect than usual. The scoring rate accelerated, but by no means were Scotland being taken to the cleaners at this point. To be honest, ths was maybe a little disappointing, because we aren't as yet out of the qualification picture.

It's not unfair to say Scotland are the most limited team in the group. They do as a unit appear to still be struggling with what happened to them in the World Cup qualifiers. They are a team of honest pros, but no more at this point. This would have been the ideal match for us to polish our net run rate a little more, in case that comes into the equation. The turning point in our innings seemed to be the Shah dismissal. At this point, around thirty overs in, it looked like we'd be doing well to make 250 at our current rate.Shaggy came in and after a long conference with Morgan, the two of them began to put their foot down. The famous reverse sweep was on show, a cheeky wee six, and Shaggy also struck some mighty blows. We put on 100 in 10 overs at the back end of the innings, Dexter eventually coming in to join Udal when Eoin was out, and frankly, without that period of acceleration, our total would probably have been flattering to Scotland given their performance in the field.

I should at this point say something about the Scotland fielding. Their bowling, all in all, was not too bad. It was fairly disciplined if unspectacular (although Hughes got a fine ball), but the fielding was absolutely dreadful at points. My iPod decided to soundtrack some of it with Joy Division's Atrocity Exhibition, which was pretty fitting. One particularly bad drop of Udal stands out in the mind, and certainly the Compton-Shah partnership offered a few chances. Scotland missed run-outs, missed a stumping, and a number of decent catching opportunities went down, too. I don't think it's unfair to say that they did have the opportunities to restrict us to a lower total than we eventually put on, and the game could have been a closer affair for us than it ended up being.

Scotland's innings got off to a fairly poor start with the dismissal of Gavin Hamilton in the first over. If Scotland want to do anything other than get regularly hammered in county competition, the experienced players are going to have to put their hands up on a consistent basis. To be fair, Ryan Watson batted well, but Scotland did sacrifice wickets to some grim shot selection. They had the experience sadly familiar to us from last season: the regular patter of wickets pinning them back and not allowing them to take risks or accelerate.

Middlesex, encouragingly, looked very positive and upbeat in the field, took their chances as they came to them, and bowled well if not dramatically well. The loss of Murtagh and Richardson can be camouflaged against a team of Scotland's level, but asking Dexter to bowl eight overs (as he did today) against a good batting line up is asking for trouble. The injuries haven't come at a good time for us with the T20 on the horizon, and the side about to be heavily affected by England call ups. Scott also went down injured at one point, appearing to have been struck by a delivery, but he got up and got on with it. He would really be a loss we can't afford. I have not much more to say on the Scotland innings; it was mercifully brief and uneventful.

But, although I sound misanthropic (and chilly) above, we need to take the considerable positives from the game. It wasn't a washout, it was a comfortable win in the end. Udal played very well for his 79 and 3 wickets, a well deserved man of the match. Morgan continues to be in better form than any of his rivals for England selection (it will be nothing short of a disgrace if he doesn't play in this ODI series), and Owais looked like he's finding his way back into touch.

Overall, a job well done, and a successful trip north to the frozen wastelands. Haste ye back, as the Scottish Tourism Board would say.

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