Scotland’s Women’s T20 Commonwealth Games qualifying campaign in Malaysia ended with defeat to Bangladesh on Sunday.
The nine wicket loss at the Kinrara Oval in Kuala Lumpur mans that the Scots finish the event with two wins from four, but there have been plenty of positives for Mark Coles’ side to take into the rest of 2022.
They finish in third spot in the table ahead of bottom side Kenya and the hosts while the top two, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, will play on Monday in the decider to see who will go to Birmingham in the summer.
The game is at (9.30am local time, 1.30am UK time).
Back to Scotland though and for their last match they brought back in fit-again Lorna Jack into the playing XI.
Batting first, Scotland knew they needed a solid start from openers Sarah Bryce and Abbi Aitken-Drummond, but they lost the latter in the second over when she was caught and bowled by Suraiya Azmin.
Things got worse for Scotland in the fourth over when captain Kathryn Bryce was caught off the same bowler to leave them 12-2.
Sarah Bryce, the wicketkeeper, and the experienced Katie McGill then put together a vital 38-run partnership to settle things down and give some building blocks to the innings.
McGill had made 22 from just 13 balls, including a quartet of fours, before she was bowled by Nahida Akter with the last ball of the eighth over.
From there Scotland lost the next seven wickets for just 27 runs as the Bangladesh bowling attack put the squeeze on.
Jack, top scorer Bryce with 29, Ailsa Lister, Rachel Slater, Katherine Fraser, Charis Scott and Hannah Rainey were all back in the pavilion by midway through the 18th over and 77 all out was perhaps not the total Scotland had hoped to amass.
Five Bangladesh bowlers took wickets after a good effort from them in the field.
With the opposition needing just 78 to win, Scotland knew they needed their best bowling performance of the tournament in the second half to secure an unlikely win.
And they could not have had a better start, the Bryce sisters combining – Kathryn the bowler and Sarah the catcher – to remove Bangladesh wicketkeeper Shamima Sultana from the first ball of the innings.
That gave the Scots hope, but then, to be fair to them, Murshida Khatun and Fargana Hogue batted very well.
Khatun carried her bat for 50 not out from 55 balls while she was well supported by Hoque (20 not out) as they got home by nine wickets with just shy of five overs remaining.
So, 77 all out played 78-1 as Scotland’s Malaysian adventure comes to an end.
