The Astralia side broke Scots hearts with a hard fought five-wicket victory over England at the Twenty20 World Cup on Saturday, which sent the Scots back home from the tournament while the hosts England made it to the Super Eight stage.
It was a difficult task for Scotland to qualify from Group B at the expense of their southern neighbors, after England recorded an upset win over Namibia in Antigua earlier in the day. In order to advance from the group, the Scots were either going to need to draw, or predict a washout against Australia.
It was clear skies at Gros Islet, so it was up to the Scots to use their cricketing skills to win the match, and they did just that, scoring 180-2 from their 20 overs, highlighted by Brandon McMullen scoring 60 from his 20 overs and Richie Berrington going 42 not out from his 20 overs.
It is likely that Australia, who had already secured their place in the second round of the tournament, were disappointed due to their fielding and the start of their innings. However, Travis Head (68) and Marcus Stoinis (59) provided the acceleration in the last 10 overs that helped Australia to victory.
“Scotland deserve a lot of credit for their performance, they took it to the wire and in the end, it was a great chase,” said Mitchell Marsh, the captain of Australia’s team.
We are excited about what lies ahead and are looking forward to the future of the World Cup.“
The Scots, according to Berrington, were disappointed that they had not driven home their advantage in the end as they had a lower net run rate than England in their first test.
It seemed to me we were in a good position at the time,” he said.
It was unfortunate that we were unable to execute the play for a long enough period of time. I think the players should be able to hold their heads high in terms of how they have played their cricket throughout the tournament.”
Agar won the toss and elected to bat first. After Munsey and McMullen had put on a partnership of 89 for the second wicket after Ashton Agar bowled opener Michael Jones in the first over, it laid the foundation for Scotland to be successful with a solid partnership for the second wicket.
The ball was bowled by Glenn Maxwell, and Munsey was out for 35 off his bowling. Adam Zampa dunked out McMullen, who hit two sixes and six fours in his innings, before Mitchell Starc got the ball back with a diving catch to dismiss him.
Despite Berrington’s efforts to take up the mantle, the Scots were disappointed that they were only able to score 42 runs in their final five overs as the Australian bowlers tightened the screws after they had been battered by numerous dropped catches during their fielding efforts.
However, the Scots gained the upper hand during the Australian innings, and the Scots were able to remove Warner (1), Marsh (8) and Maxwell (11) cheaply, Maxwell being bowled by left-arm spinner Mark Watt, who delivered a deliver that was nothing short of a peach.
A partnership between Travis Head and Marcus Stoinis for the third wicket, which was turned around by a partnership of 80 between Marcus Stoinis and Travis Head, turned the tide of the match.
After the Australian fast bowler, Safyaan Sharif, had successfully taken three consecutive legal deliveries from Head, Head headed for three sixes off successive deliveries, and even though the Scottish seamer ended his innings as soon as possible, the Australians already knew they would win the game.
There was a conspiracy theory suggested that Australia would try to lose to remove England from the tournament if it played against England, but Tim David and Matthew Wade pushed Australia across the line to silence these conspiracy theorists.
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There are eleven players on the Australian team. David Warner is no. 1, Travis Head is no. 2, Mitchell Marsh (captain), Glenn Maxwell is no. 5, Marcus Stoinis is no. 6, Tim David is no. 7, Matthew Wade is no. 8, Ashton Agar is no. 9, Mitchell Starc is no. 10, Nathan Ellis and Adam Zampa is no. 11.
As part of their squad, Scotland includes 1 George Munsey, 2 Michael Jones, 3 Brandon McMullen, 4 Richie Berrington (captain), 5 Matthew Cross (wicketkeeper), 6 Michael Leask, 7 Chris Greaves, 8 Mark Watt, 9 Chris Sole, 10 Brad Wheal, 11 Safyaan Sharif.
Timenews1 provided that information.
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