Scotland were beaten in their Plate quarter-final at the ICC under-19 men’s World Cup by Zimbabwe on Wednesday.
Having lost all three of their group games in the West Indies, the young Scots had had a few days off before this clash at the Queen’s Park Oval in Port of Spain.
And things got off to a good start when, bowling first, skipper Charlie Peet took a wicket with the last ball of the second over.
He trapped Zimbabwe skipper Emannuel Bawa LBW for three and it was the perfect beginning to Zimbabwe’s 50 overs.
Panashe Taruvinga was next to go for three in the ninth over when Lyle Robertson caught him off the bowling of Jack Jarvis.
That was 43-2, but then opener Mathew Welch and Brian Bennett put together an important stand of 112-runs for the third wicket.
By the time Bennett was out for 54 – trapped LBW by Robertson – in the 31st over – their side was on 155-3 and well set.
Five overs later Ruaridh McIntyre had Welch out – caught by Jarvis – for what ended up being a match-winning 78.
Scotland did manage to take the remaining six wickets for just 67 runs to bowl out the opposition for 248 off the penultimate ball of the innings.
The bowling attack will have been frustrated to concede 30 extras, 22 of them wides, but Jarvis finished with 3-46 from his 10 overs while Peet took 2-36 and Oliver Davidson 2-34 including two maidens.
Scotland’s reply got off to a cautious start and Charlie Tear, the wicketkeeper, was out for 16 in the seventh over.
When Muhaymen Majeed, the number three batter, fell for four to the bowling of Bennett it was 33-2 in the 12th over and Davidson fell three overs later for 12.
Tom Mackintosh and Jarvis, the former Grange team mates, then settled things a bit with 28 for the fourth wicket before the latter was bowled by Connor Mitchell for 24 off just 20 balls.
The score had just got over the three figure mark and the innings was just over the halfway mark when Mackintosh was the fifth wicket to go for 25.
That left Scotland needing 147 runs from just under 25 overs with five wickets remaining and that was always going to be a tough ask.
And so it proved in the end, wickets six, seven, eight, nine and 10 falling for 38 runs meaning that the Scots were 140 all out after 39 overs to lose by 108-runs.
Aayush Dasmahapatra did dig in for 12 on his tournament debut, but they fell well short of their target.
Next up for the Scots is now a Plate play-off semi-final against Canada on Saturday at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy in Trinidad and Tobago at 9am local time (1pm in the UK).
Canada lost their Plate last eight tie to Ireland by 94-runs on Wednesday with 179 all out playing 85 all out.
