The Scottish Saltires' bid to kickstart this season's Friends Trophy campaign was curtailed by bad light and worse batting at Citylets Grange last night. Their meeting with Durham Dynamos ended in strange fashion at 5.30pm with Scotland batsmen Gavin Hamilton and John Blain walking off the pitch when their side was 52 for five and still 46 runs adrift of the Duckworth/Lewis target at that stage.

However, anyone leaving the ground believing they had simply lain down arms and capitulated - an apparently reasonable thing to conclude under traditional regulations - would have been wrong on this occasion because new rules introduced this year mean the batsmen no longer have any say in whether to stay on.

Such matters are now entirely in the hands of the match officials and with Hamilton - the Saltires' most experienced player having once played Test cricket for England - having had his helmet rattled by a delivery from Callum Thorp, umpires Rob Bailey and George Sharpe took them off after one ball of the 18th over.

While conditions had been overcast throughout the day with Steve Harmison, the fastest bowler in English cricket, bowling from the other end, it was probably the only decision they could make when the light deteriorated further.

"There was a big drop in the light-metre reading and we've already had one lad who's had a nasty knock to his head," explained Bailey, the former Northamptonshire captain.

Their decision could not disguise the fact that it had been another lame effort by Scotland's batsmen after a decent bowling and fielding effort had kept their visitors in check and Ryan Watson, the Saltires captain, admitted as much.

"We know we've got to work on our batting. We just need a couple of partnerships at the the top, but then their batting line-up isn't the worst in the world and they found it tough today," he observed. "We have to look towards the big fixtures in July and August and keep looking at what we're trying to do. However, I'm delighted with the way we bowled and our ground fielding is improving so once we pick up our batting we should be fine."

In such difficult conditions Durham struggled to gather momentum after being put in to bat and lost wickets steadily, with the top partnership a 27-run stand for the fourth wicket. That ended with a lovely moment for Glenn Rogers, Stenhousemuir's left-arm spinner, as he out-thought Neil McKenzie. Just a few weeks ago the South African set a world record opening stand with his Test captain Graeme Smith, and he looked ready to cut loose when he drove Rogers over long on for six. However, the bowler had the courage to throw the next ball a bit higher and when McKenzie went to smite it again he missed and was clean bowled.

From that point it was clear that the English county's chances of making a big score were slender and they continued to lose wickets at regular intervals as they battled their way to 181-9 off their 50 overs.

While Scotland, in turn, were struggling to get going in the early overs, it looked as if the match had turned their way in the eighth over when Neil Killeen, Durham's wily veteran opening bowler, pulled up lame after bowling just one ball of his fourth over. Ben Harmison, younger brother of England international Steve, took over and struggled to find his length.

His first ball was a full toss which was carved away for two, his second a long hop that was smashed through the offside for four and after a dot ball he was then driven over long off for four more by the so-often inspirational Watson.

The danger in such circumstances is always that the batsman loses his concentration and when Harmison then bowled a straight one with the last ball of the over Watson missed it with bat, but not pad and had little complaint at being given out lbw.

Where 30 for one had looked promising, Colin Smith followed his captain soon after in similar fashion before opener Fraser Watts, having played and missed a number of times, went too hard at a slower ball and was easily caught at mid off. Suddenly the Saltires' top order had disappeared.

When Neil McCallum then failed to make any impression the outcome was inevitable, even before the umpires made their decision.