Ireland 251 & 271 beat Scotland 141 & 178 by 202 runs [Scorecard]
A combined effort from the batting and bowling departments took Ireland to a big 203-run victory over Scotland in its last ICC Intercontinental Cup match in Dubai on Friday, with the Scottish side bowled out for 178.
Ireland temporarily stands at top of the table with 109 points but will be displaced should Afghanistan (101 points) beats the United Arab Emirates. Scotland returns home with 46 points, in sixth place.
Ireland resumed on 186 for 5, after having claimed a lead of 110 runs in the first innings, Kevin O’Brien, who scored an unbeaten 78 in the first innings, added only five to his overnight score of 13 when Stu Whittingham (5 for 70) had him caught behind on 18.
Simi Singh was then joined by George Dockrell and the pair added 55 runs for the seventh wicket with the latter playing the role of the aggressor. Before perishing on 40, Dockrell smacked five fours in his 46-ball knock.
After Whittingham sent back Simi on 59, he wrapped up Ireland’s tail in quick time to bowl out the William Porterfield-led side for 271.
Faced with a steep target of 382, Scotland lost its openers Kyle Coetzer (6), the skipper, and George Munsey (6) early. Calum MacLeod (33), Craig Wallace (21) and Matthew Cross (14) got starts but couldn’t convert them into big scores.
With the match out of Scotland’s reach, Michael Leask, the No. 8 batsman, blasted four boundaries and a six en route to an entertaining 28-ball 33. Mark Watt, who top-scored with 43 in Scotland’s second essay, was the last one to depart.
For Ireland, Peter Chase returned 4 for 52, while Tim Murtagh (3 for 35), Boyd Rankin (2 for 39) and O’Brien (1 for 12) shared the remaining wickets between them.
Grant Bradburn said, “While our bowling and fielding was high-class throughout the match, our batting unit simply couldn’t put the runs on the board to be in command of the contest.
While run-scoring from both sides was light throughout the match, we felt 372 was a gettable total on a good surface today.
The team are disappointed not to beat Ireland before they embark on Test cricket, there is acceptance and good learning to be tucked away from our I-Cup campaign before we move back into one day mode against Kenya.
The priority of this tour has been the final two Kenyan games and we now all look forward to preparing for game one next Wednesday.”
