MATCH REPORT
Follow UsMichael Leask’s unbeaten 91 helped Scotland clinch a thriller against Ireland in Match 7 of ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup Qualifiers. Chasing the eight ball for most part of the second innings, Scotland won on the last ball with one wicket in hand.
Scotland had their back against the wall when Leask walked out to bat at number seven. They were 117/5 in 25.1 overs in a run chase of 287 runs. They skid to 152/7 in 33.2 overs, raising the required run-rate to 8.3 runs per over.
Leask then found support in Mark Watt at the other end. The two added 82 runs off only 67 balls for the eighth wicket. Watt was the senior contributor, scoring 47 off 43 balls, before getting stumped by George Dockrell’s left-arm spin at the start of the 46th over.
With Scotland still 53 runs behind and only two wickets and five overs in hand, Leask upped the ante. 44 off 42 balls at this point, the right-handed batter shifted to the fifth gear, scoring 43 off 18 balls in a 50-run stand with the number 10 batter, Safyaan Sharif.
The partnership reduced the equation to 8 off the last over. Leask found a boundary off the first ball when the long-on fielder let the ball go through his legs. He handed the strike to Sharif with a single on the next ball. However, Sharif couldn’t repay the trust and was caught at short third-man off the bowling of Mark Adair. With two required off the final ball, an inside edge off Leask’s bat missed the stumps as well as the wicketkeeper, allowing the winning boundary for Scotland. The last three wickets added 137 runs from 97 deliveries.
Leask struck nine fours and four sixes in his knock of 91 from 61 deliveries. The 47th over brought 22 runs where the 32-year old hit Josh Little for two sixes and two fours. At the top, Christopher McBride, the opener, scored a handy 56 off 60 deliveries.
Adair picked three wickets for Ireland but went for 57 runs in his 10 overs. Little had figures of 2/73 in 10 overs. George Dockrell, meanwhile, had figures of 2/34 in seven overs.
Like Scotland, Ireland also came from behind in the bat. Scotland’s opening bowler, the right-arm seamer, Brandon McMullen dismissed Paul Stirling and Andrew Balbirnie for a first-ball duck each in the first over of the game. At the start of the fifth over, he pouched Harry Tector, reducing Ireland to 17/3.
Slipping further to 70/5, Curtis Campher and Dockrell led Ireland’s recovery. They added 136 runs for the sixth wicket. After Dockrell’s dismissal for 69, Camphor added another 50 runs with Gareth Delany.
Campher was the last batter out, scoring 120 from 108 balls, notching up his first ODI hundred. Like Leask, he also struck nine fours and four sixes. McMullen ended with figures of 5/34, his best bowling figures in his professional career.
"The first ten overs when we were batting and the last ten overs when we were bowling took the game away from us," said Balbirnie, the Ireland skipper, after the disappointing loss. Ireland conceded 89 runs in their last 10 overs. With the bat, they were 34/4 at the 10-over mark.
Ireland have lost both their games in the group stage and their qualification to the Super Six stage looks in jeopardy. Meanwhile, Scotland are off to a winning start to their campaign.
