Scotland 278/9 (50 overs) MacLeod 154, Berrington 54, Coetzer 46 beat PNG 177ao (43.3 overs) Ura 42, Leasky 2/26, Evans 2/30, Whittingham 2/37 by 101 runs [Scorecard]
Centurion Calum MacLeod was full of praise for his team mates after Scotland drew first blood at Amini Park in the first of two World Cricket League Championship matches with a 101-run win against Papua New Guinea.
Kyle Coetzer won the toss and elected to bat first as he and MacLeod helped rebuild following the early loss of Matthew Cross (1).
Coetzer made a fluent 46, taking the country’s leading run-scorer past 1,500 ODI runs in the process and becoming the first Scotland player to ever achieve the feat.
Berrington (54) gave MacLeod support as he got settled and then started to go through the gears. MacLeod was eventually dismissed after stroking 15 fours and 3 sixes on his way to 154 in the 48th over.
Papua New Guinea did well to stem the flow of runs as they took 6 wickets for 38 run in the final 5 overs, as the innings concluded on 278/9.
In reply, early wickets by Ali Evans and Safyaan Sharif gave Scotland a great start, only Tony Ura’s defiant 42 really held the Scots up as the bowlers turned the screw.
PNG were eventually all out for 177 as Leask returned with 2/26, Evans 2/30 and Whittingham 2/37 to give their side a 101-run win.
After the game MacLeod said, “I thought they bowled well and quite straight at us. Richie helped me quite a lot in the middle overs, where I used up a few dots, but with his help and then spending a bit of time at the crease things got easier.
We’ve been out here for a while now and we’re acclimatised to these conditions a bit and how hot it was going to be.
I think once we got into our stride, we thought we had a good score. The wicket played a bit differently to the four-day game, but once we got used to that we could hit a few strong shots.
I think the bowlers did a brilliant job getting wickets, we know how important wickets are in one day cricket, and we took them all the way through the innings and set up the win.”
The win pushes Scotland up to second place in the table, leapfrogging their hosts. The teams will now play their final World Cricket League game on Saturday.
