Scotland’s men put in a fine all-round performance to defeat the UAE in the Laserbook Tri-series at Mannofield on Sunday.
The 86 run Cricket World Cup League Division Two triumph at Aberdeenshire’s Mannofield ground built on previous victories over the UAE and the USA and means they go into the final match of the series in midweek looking to go unbeaten.
Batting first, Scotland lost Craig Wallace in just the second over for six and when fellow opener Kyle Coetzer went towards the end of the third for 10 it was 16-2.
Michael Jones and Calum MacLeod then put on 38 for the third wicked before the former was out for 14 in the 14th over.
MacLeod had scored a century the day before against the USA and he clearly still had his eye in because he then carried on along his merry way and put together a fourth wicket partnership of 113 with skipper Matthew Cross.
When MacLeod was caught by Chirag Suri off the bowling of Basil Hameed, the Scots were up to 167-4 in the 37th over.
Cross would go on to top score with 85 while Mark Watt added a very useful 29 in 26 balls to help hoist Scotland up to 254-9 from their 50 overs in this One Day International.
Muhammad Waseem and Aryan Lakra got the UAE reply off to a flier and put on 25 runs in the first three overs before the former was bowled by Hamza Tahir for 23.
Watt and Safyaan Sharif then both had batters caught behind by wicketkeeper Cross to reduce the UAE to 53-3 midway through the 11th over.
Chundangapoyil Rizwan and Rohan Mustafa then fell in quick succession to Watt – the former stumped by Cross and the latter caught by MacLeod – and when Michael Leask had Basil Hameed caught by Chris Greaves, the UAE were 109-6 in the 29th over.
Wicketkeeper Vriitya Aravind showed good resistance with 50 while Kashif Daud made 23, but in the end they were 168 all out after 41 overs.
Player of the match Watt finished up with 5-33 from his 10 overs with Chris Sole taking 2-34 and Tahir, Sharif and Leask all chipping in.
On Tuesday, the UAE will be back in action at Mannofield when they take on the USA while Shane Burger’s Scotland will look to keep their good form going on Wednesday when they take on the Americans.
