a 48-run ODI victory<\/a> over Ireland.<\/p>\nBut simply painting by numbers did not reflect Scrimshaw\u2019s contribution.<\/p>\n
“It was horrible,” he tells BBC Sport. “I couldn\u2019t get to sleep. Some people can let things go a lot easier than others \u2013 that day really swallowed me up.”<\/p>\n
Just 24 hours previously, Scrimshaw had been informed he was in the England XI. Matchday brought some nerves but “I get them every single game, and that\u2019s good for me. But then what happened, happened”.<\/p>\n
What happened was that, with his opening delivery in international cricket, Scrimshaw overstepped. He did so three more times in his first over. His second over contained another pair of no-balls and a wide.<\/p>\n
“I\u2019d bowled one front foot no-ball in the first T20 game of the 2023 season but not a single one after that,” Scrimshaw explains. “So, I\u2019m just thinking ‘what is going on here?’ I felt the same as in every game. My body was hurting a little bit but that’s no excuse – my body is always hurting!<\/p>\n
“I just didn’t know what was going on: Is my run-up wrong? Am I running in faster? Am I running in slower? Just horrible. The crowd cheered when I bowled a legal delivery.”<\/p>\n
Team-mates surrounded Scrimshaw with positivity but on the boundary\u2019s edge he was isolated. <\/p>\n
“You can\u2019t block it out,” he says of the surrounding noise. “I can hear all of their conversations. I felt like they were coming through a speaker. It was sympathetic but I didn’t want sympathy. I’m a professional cricketer; I obviously know how to bowl.”<\/p>\n
After 11 legitimate balls, Scrimshaw had conceded 35 runs. Then some welcome relief arrived via Andy Balbirnie nicking to Ben Duckett. The celebrations were muted and, naturally, his front foot was checked by the TV umpires.<\/p>\n
“I\u2019m thinking ‘here we go they’re going to no-ball it’,” Scrimshaw says smiling. \u201cI was getting a load of taps on the back, and I just said, \u2018don’t worry lads you’re all good \u2013 plenty of bowlers have been here and done this before and look at them now\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
Scrimshaw\u2019s team-mates were \u201cpraising me, telling me to keep my head up, to keep fighting. I really did try. I tried to scrape through the rest of that innings\u201d.<\/p>\n
Fortunately, England had earlier posted 334 runs, giving stand-in skipper Zak Crawley a little wriggle room. He stuck with the quick for a third over, and that cost just a single. Later, Scrimshaw returned to remove Lorcan Tucker and then, to seal the win, Josh Little.<\/p>\n
Scrimshaw had been playing for his now former county Derbyshire at Scarborough when England selector Luke Wright called.<\/p>\n
“I didn’t think it would be for the 50-over format because I’ve hardly played any of that,” he said.<\/p>\n
“The skills are transferable, but I thought if I got picked it would be for T20. But I was over the moon to get picked for England; it was brilliant.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even 12 months on, though, Scrimshaw\u2019s disappointment at what is, to date, his only international appearance lingers.<\/p>\n
“I wasn’t bowling like I normally do at any point in that game,” he recalls. \u201cI was bowling low 80s, whereas normally I bowl high 80s, or even 90s with the white ball. I wanted to show people watching what I could do but they got the wrong ‘me’ that day.”<\/p>\n
Scrimshaw\u2019s dad, uncle and brother were in the Nottingham crowd and called him down for a post-play photo.<\/p>\n
They made their pride in him clear, but he could not properly take it in, instead opting to disengage.<\/p>\n
“I tried not to look at socials,” he says. “All the reports were coming through \u2013 things like ‘nightmare debut’, ‘hero to zero’. After that game I had a bit of performance anxiety.\u201d<\/p>\n
That tension only eased when Scrimshaw was able to finally play again at the Abu Dhabi T10 tournament last December. “I was like ‘oh thank God, I can still play'”.<\/p>\n
If anyone can recover, it is Scrimshaw: he and adversity are on first-name terms. Ahead of joining Derbyshire in 2021, he had, owing to a series of back injuries at Worcestershire, gone more than 1,300 days without 1st XI action.<\/p>\n
Having joined Northamptonshire in 2024, Scrimshaw pushed his body a tad too hard, and a stress fracture has consequently ruled him out since early June. An early 2025 return is pencilled in.<\/p>\n
“I\u2019ve not been in touch with England a lot to be honest,” Scrimshaw explains. “I\u2019ve had one message to say, ‘we\u2019ll be watching you’. For now, it\u2019s about not expecting too much. It\u2019s about working hard, nailing down my place, doing well in T20 and seeing what comes of it. But obviously my main goal is to get back there.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n
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