Scotland’s cricketers will go into Saturday’s T20 world cup sectional showdown with England on a high after a 73 run win over tournament debutants Italy in Kolkata, India.
Put into bat the Scots got off to a flying start with RH Corstorphine’s George Munsey (84) partnering Michael Jones (37) in a stand of 127.
When Jones departed another RH Corstorphine batter, Brandon McMullen, arrived to smack 41 and the cherry on the top of the Scottish innings came when Michael Leask arrived to hit five balls faced at the close of the innings for 22.
A total of 207 was the first time an Associate member country had surpassed 200 in the tournament and player of the match Leask told the “Times of India”: “For me it was just the full team performance today.”
Referring to the scramble required to organise travel, kit, visas etc at short notice, Leask added: “Look its been a lot of hard work coming into this tour, We obviously hadn’t had much prep time but it just shows how much dedication we’ve got to what we’ve done.”
Admittedly the Italians, who had qualified ahead of the Scots who had to reply on a late call up when Bangladesh were ejected amidst a political dispute, were hampered by an injury to skipper Wayne Madsen (dislocated shoulder) in the field.
However, apart from one or two concerns the Scots kept ramping up the pressure and when that man Leask showed his work wasn’t done by returning with the ball – he took a wicket with the opening delivery – to finish with figures of 4-17. That confirmed victory.
It was the ideal way to bounce back from the opening day defeat by West Indies and intrigue will have been added to the next encounter by England’s unconvincing victory over Nepal in their opening match.
Skipper Richie Berrington told The Express Tribune: “Really pleased to get our opening win. In the end it was a comprehensive win, but we had to work hard for it.”
