Scotland 239 (49.3 ov) Leask 91, Munsey 77, lost to Ireland 243/8 (50 overs) Balbirnie 79, Dockrell 47*, by 2 wickets [Scorecard]
Scotland completed their final warm up match before the ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifiers against Ireland at Queens Cricket Ground in Bulawayo, in a game that ebbed and flowed with Ireland eventually claiming a final ball win.
After Kyle Coetzer won the toss and elected to bat first, the Scots were soon in all sorts of trouble with the captain and Matthew Cross both falling to Tim Murtagh.
Richie Berrington was next to go for 0 when he edged a Barry McCarthy delivery to Gary Wilson at slip, with the score now 15/3 at the end of the 4th over.
Calum MacLeod added 29 to the score but fell to a return catch by Boyd Rankin before Saffyan Sharif and Craig Wallace fell cheaply with the Scots teetering on 60/6.
Michael Leask and George Munsey then produced an outstanding partnership worth 170 to propel the score to 216. Leask played the aggressor while Munsey batted sensibly, recovering from a nasty blow to the helmet from Rankin to continue his innings.
Leask fell for 91 in search of his maiden Scotland century and Munsey went for 77 to give the Scots a decent total to defend. Ireland bowled well at the end of their innings, using slower ball bouncers to good effect as Scotland concluded on 239ao from 49.3 overs.
In reply, Scotland made early inroads into the Irish batting line up dismissing the big wickets of William Porterfield, Paul Stirling and Ed Joyce relatively cheaply.
Andrew Balbirnie held the innings together with support from Niall O’Brien (35) and Gary Wilson (21), but Scotland continued to take wickets and looked to have the upper hand with 32 runs required from 3 overs.
George Dockrell played a canny hand with 47* and Rankin’s 12 runs from 5 deliveries gave Ireland the victory off the final delivery of the match to conclude a cracking game of cricket.
Scotland will now have a few days to recover before taking on Afghanistan in their first Group B match at Bulawayo Athletic Club.
