Nayma Sheikh took the prize wicket of Shafali Verma and Scotland battled hard, but in the end they lost to India by 85 runs in their final Group D match at the ICC Women’s U19 T20 World Cup in South Africa on Wednesday.
The match took place at the Willowmoore Park B Field in Benoni, and India won the toss and decided to have a bat.
Scotland managed to reduce them to 34-2 at one stage before a 70 run partnership between Gongadi Trisha and wicketkeeper Richa Ghosh got the Indians back on track.
In the end, India made 151-4 from their 20 overs and Scotland can be proud of their bowling and fielding performance.
With the bat in reply, Ailsa Lister and Darcey Carter got the Scots off to a flyer and both hit 6s in their respective innings, but once India’s spinners took control the team were in trouble.
Mannat Kashyap, the player of the match, led the way with 4-12 and Scotland were 66 all out.
After the match, defeated skipper Katherine Fraser said: “We had our moments at the start of each innings with ball and with bat and it was really exciting the way we started with in the bowling innings, but we couldn’t quite keep it together.
“It is about learning to manage the pressure of the situation against these types of teams, we have not played a huge amount of games together as a group, but the more cricket we play together the better we will get.
“All three games that we have played so far we have had great support in the grounds and from back home and so far the experience has been incredible.”
Scotland head coach Peter Ross brought Watsonians’ Emily Tucker into the XI for this one for her tournament debut in place of Masie Maceira.
India had won both of their games before this one while in Verma they have one of the best female batters in the world, not just at this level.
She is 18, but has already played two Tests, 21 ODIs and 51 T20Is for the full India team, so when Sheikh had her caught in the deep by Fraser only two balls into the second over of the match for just one, the Scots were delighted.
Things got better in the fourth over when Orla Montgomery had Sonia Mendhiya caught behind by wicketkeeper Lister for six and India were 34-2.
As mentioned, Trisha and Ghosh then came together in a solid third wicket partnership and, by the time the latter was caught by Olivia Bell off the bowling of Fraser, she had made 33 and India were on 104-3.
Trisha was then caught by Carter two balls later for a well-made 57, but then Shweta Sehrawat did some real late innings damage, hitting 31 not out off just 10 balls including four 4s and two 6s.
In the bowling stakes, Fraser finished up with 2-31, Montgomery 1-28 and Sheikh 1-32 as Scotland were set 152 to win.
In the reply, the openers made a good start and were taking things to the India bowlers with strong intent.
By the time Lister was out for 14 in the fourth over she had hit one 4 and one 6, but Kashyap had her caught by Sehrawat.
In the sixth over Emma Walsingham was caught by Trisha first ball off the same bowler and it was 41-2.
Carter was still taking things to the Indians, but she was caught by Titas Sadhu off the bowling of Archana Devi for an entertaining 24.
Her runs came from 22 balls and included three 4s and a maximum.
From 47-3, Scotland lost their last seven wickets for just 19 runs, Sheikh the highest scorer of those left with just seven.
As well as Kashyap’s four scalps, Devi took 3-14 and Sonam Yadav 2-1 while Maryam Faisal was run out.
This result means that Scotland finish bottom of Group D behind India, South Africa an UAE and will not be progressing to the Super Six phase, but they still have one match left.
That will be at the main ground at Willowmoore Park on Friday at 8am UK time against USA who finished bottom in Group A.
Scotland playing XI versus India:
Ailsa Lister (V-C)
Darcey Carter
Emma Walsingham
Katherine Fraser (C)
Emily Tucker
Olivia Bell
Maryam Faisal
Nayma Sheikh
Niamh Muir
Orla Montgomery
Niamh Robertson-Jack
