David Kelso

FRASER Watts admitted Scotland will be back to square one when they go into battle against struggling Durham tomorrow.

The sides enter the fray at Citylets Grange on the back of wildly contrasting fortunes in the Friends Provident Trophy.

Watts and Co should be in ultra-confident mood following their stunning triumph over Lancashire at Old Trafford, while holders Durham have made a wretched start to their defence. But the stand-in skipper knows that to build on their success, the Saltires must shake off their home turf blues.

Watts, who hands back the captaincy to new dad Ryan Watson, said: "We seem to have reserved all our best displays for our trips to England in recent times. While it is always fantastic to win down there, our inability to produce that form in Edinburgh has been really frustrating.

"Obviously, the result at Old Trafford was a major confidence boost, but it won't count for much unless we build on the experience this weekend."

Watts went on: "We need to get more out of the batsmen. At Derby last Sunday we ended up 30 or 40 runs short and that was probably because we misjudged the conditions a bit.

"That meant we tried to score too quickly in the first half of the innings, which led to wickets falling.

"We started off believing it would be a 250 track, when in fact it was more like a 210 wicket.

"Again at Manchester, we went in at the turnaround thinking we hadn't done ourselves justice with the bat. But as it turned out, the bowlers responded in terrific fashion and the rest is history."

Watts added: "As ever, it will be all about basics against Durham and we know that if we play to our capabilities we will be in the hunt."

Prediction Scots' home hoodoo goes on.