A fine performance in the post-lunch session enabled Scotland to establish a 41-run first-innings lead in the Intercontinental Cup final in Dubai on Friday, but this advantage was squandered by a batting collapse in the face of a powerful Afghan fightback after tea.

By the close, Scotland were on 64 for six in their second innings, just 105 ahead with only four wickets in hand.

Their true situation was even more parlous than these bare figures suggest, since Richie Berrington, not out overnight, has been forced by a thigh strain to bat with a runner, and skipper Gordon Drummond has a rib injury which means that he is unlikely to bowl again in the match, although he will bat if needed.

With Drummond unable to take the field from the start, his deputy Kyle Coetzer was forced to open the bowling with Matt Parker and Richie Berrington, and the overnight batsmen Karim Sadeq and Mirwais Ashraf began at a gallop, smacking 35 off the first six overs and adding 55 in all in the first hour.

Coetzer then turned to spin, bringing on Majid Haq, and the off-spinner responded by getting Mirwais caught behind by Simon Smith with his second delivery.

Berrington now switched to the pavilion end, and he and Haq succeeded in cutting the flow of runs as Karim and Mohammad Shahzad played uncharacteristically subdued innings against some accurate, probing bowling.

Shahzad survived a couple of confident appeals from Haq, but it was Berrington who trapped Karim in front when the Afghan opener had made a 71-ball 34, including five boundaries. Shahzad was the next to go, caught at midwicket as he top-edged an attempted pull off a shorter Berrington delivery, and Afghanistan had slumped from 54 for one to 89 for four.

Asghar Stanikzai joined skipper Nawrooz Mangal, and with Haq continuing to bowl with splendid control these two batted steadily until shortly before lunch. But the introduction of Ross Lyons into the attack was the trigger for a flurry of runs from Asghar, who showed no sign of batting for the interval as he smashed three boundaries in four balls.

Nawrooz, too, went onto the attack in Haq�s final over before lunch, and 21 runs in two overs meant that the momentum was once again with the Afghans, who had reached 132 for four by the interval.

It was magnificent spells from Parker and Haq which brought a huge change of fortunes in the afternoon session. Haq removed Asghar in the second over after lunch, and the Scottish pair bowled so tightly that only six runs came in eleven overs before Parker induced Mohammad Nabi to edge to keeper Simon Smith.

Nawrooz stood firm at the other end, reaching a well-deserved half-century and going on to 56 before Ross Lyons, who had replaced Haq after the off-spinner had bowled twenty overs on the trot from the City End, caught the edge and Smith again accepted the catch. The Afghan skipper had faced 92 deliveries and hit nine boundaries.

His departure, however, proved the beginning of the end of his side�s innings. Parker removed Samiullah Shenwari in the next over, and when Haq came back to replace him, he and Lyons picked up a wicket apiece to dismiss the Afghans for 171. Haq finished with three for 49 and Parker with three for 56; the latter�s figures, though, do not do justice to his post-lunch spell, which was 11 � 5 � 12 � 2.

But it is in such circumstances that the Afghans are at their most dangerous, and adversity brings out both the best and worst in their cricket. Facing a deficit which had seemed inconceivable 24 hours before, they bowled extremely well, but they backed it up with some appealing which ranged from the ludicrously optimistic to the downright disgraceful.

Fraser Watts and Preston Mommsen began confidently enough, and Nawrooz brought leg-spinner Samiullah Shenwari into the attack as early as the eighth over. He struck immediately, when Mommsen failed to pick the wrong�un and was adjudged leg-before not playing a shot.

Watts became his second victim eight overs later, edging to Nawrooz at slip. Coetzer and Gregor Maiden, promoted up the order because of the injury to Berrington, took the score quietly along to 55, but then, without warning, the roof fell in.

First Coetzer ran himself out attempting an ill-judged single, and two balls later Maiden snicked a Sami delivery and Nawrooz took a superb slip catch. That brought Hamid Hassan back into the attack, and he immediately removed Neil McCallum, the first-innings centurion. Scotland had lost three wickets in nine deliveries, and Afghanistan were seeminginly in complete command.

Berrington, with Watts as runner, joined Parker, and they set out to see their side through to the close without further loss. They almost managed it, but in the day�s final over Hamid produced a magnificent delivery which smashed into Parker�s middle stump, and Scotland ended the day facing almost certain defeat.

Sami�s spell of 14 overs had earned him three for 15, while Hamid finished with two for 25.

Day 2 Close:

Scotland 1st Innings 212 All Out (Overs 88.4) NFI McCallum 104* SJS Smith 36 Hamid Hassan 5-45 Mirwais Ashraf 3-53

Afghanistan 1st Innings 171 All Out (Overs 60.1) Nawroz Mangal 56 MA Parker 3-56 RM Haq 3-49

Scotland 2nd Innings 64-6 (Overs 38.3) Samiullah Shenwari 3-15

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The remarkable course of the Intercontinental Shield final at the nearby Global Cricket Academy continued on Friday morning, with UAE pacemen Shoaib Sarwar and Amjad Javed taking four wickets in the first 20 minutes� play to send Namibia tumbling from their overnight score of 267 for three to 269 for seven.

Louis van der Westhuizen made 34 to get the Namibian total up to 320, a lead of 241, but Arshad Ali chimed in with two wickets to help finish off the innings. Arshad had three for 46, while Shoaib and Amjad finished with two for 61 and two for 86 respectively.

Then Arshad (50) and Naeemuddin Aslam (48), the latter promoted to open the second innings, put on a first-wicket stand of 98 � 19 more than the entire team had managed at their first attempt. Sarel Burger struck back, however, to remove both openers, and the Emiratis slumped to 131 for five.

Saqib Ali and Swapnil Patil saw them through to the close, putting on 69 in the process, and the UAE go into the third day 41 behind with five wickets in hand. Saqib was 42 not out overnight, while Burger has figures of four for 30.