This match always had the potential to embarrass Kevin Pietersen and his England team, like a Scottish by-elec-tion for Gordon Brown, but in the end their contest with Scotland’s side of club cricketers, mixed in with past and present county professionals, was washed out after a respectable batting performance from the home side. Perhaps the presence of Alex Salmond, the First Minister, inspired Scotland to 156 for nine after they had slumped to 11 for three in their first official one-day international against England.

Although there was time for only 15 balls of England’s reply until the decisive deluge arrived, there were a few pointers to their batting plans for the NatWest Series against South Africa, which follows tomorrow’s Twenty20 international at the Riverside.

As expected, Matt Prior will open the innings with Ian Bell, but the one significant change was the promotion of Owais Shah from No 6 to No 3. “I think he was wasted down the order,” Pietersen said.

The main architect of Scotland’s recovery was Gavin Hamilton, the former Yorkshire all-rounder, who played one Test for England in 1999 and yesterday made a resolute 60.

He was dropped twice on 24, by James Anderson at slip and Luke Wright at third man, but Hamilton rode his luck to hit four fours and three sixes from 119 balls.

Tim Bresnan and Samit Patel, who was making his international debut, had given the away side a stirring start in seam-friendly conditions. Playing his first one-day international for two years, Bresnan was entrusted with the new ball and took wickets in his second and third overs. Kyle Coetzer and Navdeep Poonia both edged outswingers from Bresnan to slip.

Patel made telling contributions with his first two touches of the ball by hitting the stumps to run out Ryan Watson and holding a neat catch to dismiss Poonia. He later bowled seven tidy overs of his skiddy left-arm spin, advancing his claims to be considered as the second slow-bowling option, alongside Graeme Swann.

The play helped to divert the players’ minds from the ongoing security issues regarding next month’s ICC Champions Trophy in Pakistan. The ECB management board will meet today with Haroon Lorgat, the ICC chief executive, before discussing whether it is safe to send a team to Pakistan, or whether they should push for the tournament to be moved to Sri Lanka.

Pietersen has conceded that the players have “huge reservations”. “The Board knows exactly the stance of the players,” he said yesterday. “It’s a big decision for the Board to make, but I’m sure everything’s going to work out.” The ECB’s decision is not, however, likely to be finalised until later in the week. After today’s meeting, it undertakes further discussions with its counterparts in New Zealand and Australia, whose players have expressed their reluctance to travel to Pakistan. It is likely that the ECB will attempt to adopt a joint stance with these countries. To add to the uncertainty in Pakistan, Nasim Ashraf, the chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board, stood down from his post yesterday, shortly after Pervez Mushar-raf, his political ally, had announced his decision to resign as the country’s president.

- A hostile Robbie Joseph underlined his growing stature with five for 13 as Kent shot out Derbyshire for a dismal 60 in the NatWest Pro40 match at Canterbury yesterday, their lowest one-day score. Kent then completed a crushing nine-wicket win that occupied only 135 minutes of playing time.

Scoreboard

Scotland
G M Hamilton c Prior b Flintoff 60
*R R Watson run out 1
K J Coetzer c Flintoff b Bresnan 0
N S Poonia c Patel b Bresnan 0
C J O Smith c sub b Broad 36
N F I McCallum c Anderson b Patel 2
C M Wright b Broad 12
J A R Blain b Flintoff 13
C S MacLeod not out 10
J D Nel b Flintoff 0
R T Lyons not out 3
Extras (b 4, lb 9, w 6) 19
Total (9 wkts, 44 overs) 156
Fall of wickets: 1-7, 2-10, 3-11, 4-75, 5-80, 6-122, 7-129, 8-152, 9-152.
Bowling: Anderson 9-0-22-0; Bresnan 8-2-34-2; Broad 9-0-35-2; Flintoff 8-1-21-3; Patel 7-0-22-1; Pietersen 2-0-6-0; Wright 1-0-3-0.

England
I R Bell not out 6
M J Prior not out 1
Extras (lb 2, w 1) 3
Total (no wkt, 2.3 overs) 10
O A Shah, *K P Pietersen, A Flintoff, R S Bopara, L J Wright, S R Patel, T T Bresnan, S C J Broad and J M Anderson did not bat.
Bowling: Blain 1.3-0-4-0; Nel 1-0-4-0.
Umpires: P K Baldwin (Ger) and S J A Taufel (Aus).