Scotland beat Oman by 15 runs in the third and final 50-over game to win the series 2-1 and finish the tour of Oman with two series wins.
Losing the toss and being sent in to bat, two changes were made to Kyle Coetzer’s side with Michael Leask and Adrian Neill replacing Ruaidhri Smith and Hamza Tahir.
The men in tartan got their run chase off to a solid start, putting on 51 runs for the opening stand before the loss of the first wicket, Matt Cross (23) dismissed by Fayyaz Butt off the bowling of Bhandari after 12.6 overs.
Calum MacLeod, who scored 195 runs in the tour at an average of 65, joined Kyle Coetzer in the middle before the skipper departed for a sturdy 27 off 50 – falling to the bowling of Mohammad Nadeem after 19.1 overs.
Richie Berrington (72*), the experienced campaigner who has hit a run of form in the last couple of games, strolled out to the middle to join MacLeod and immediately set about building a solid partnership, reaching a 73-run stand for the third wicket before MacLeod departed for a strong 64 off 80.
The dismissal brought hard-hitting batsman George Munsey to the crease, who top-scored for Scotland on the tour with 228 runs, and Berrington again formed a solid partnership – this time a blitzing 141-run stand with Munsey.
Munsey, who smashed seven 4s and nine 6s striking at an explosive 223.25, fell an agonising four runs short of his 100 – being caught by Khawar Ali off the bowling of Kaleemullah for 96 attempting to reach three figures.
By the time Oman were able to break the partnership, the damage had already been done – Munsey falling with the score 294/4 after 48.8 overs.
Mark Watt strolled to the middle to join Berrington, and the pair put on just the 7 runs before Watt departed with one ball left in the innings.
Berrington, striking three 4s and three 6s during his 80-ball mainstay, finished his innings with an impressive 72*.
Chasing 304, Oman got off to a comfortable start, putting 31 runs on the board for the first wicket partnership before Safyaan Sharif struck three times in quick succession to remove Jatinder Singh (17), TK Bhandari (15) and Mohammad Nadeem (4) to leave the hosts wobbling slightly at 40/3 after 7.5 overs.
Providing some resistance in the way of a 40-run stand, Khawar Ali (26) and MVS Michal’s partnership was soon broken by Richie Berrington (2/44) to leave Oman 83-4 after 16.3 overs, the target of 304 seeming a long way off.
Despite the early loss of their top four, Oman continued to build partnerships throughout their innings with MVS Michal (34), Sandeep Goud (49), Khurram Nawaz (30) and Fayyaz Butt (45) all reaching double figures to try and pull off the run-chase.
After the loss of the 8th wicket, Badal Singh (30 from 24) and Kaleemullah (19 off 6) provided a last-ditch attempt to pick up the runs needed for a series win, before Scotland managed to hold their nerve at the closing stages of the game to restrict Oman to 288/8 from their 50.
The 15-run win meant Scotland ended their tour of Oman with a Quadrangular Series and 50-0ver Series win, with some key performances with the bat and ball across the two weeks.
Scotland’s next international sees a visit from Afghanistan at the Grange on 8th and 10th May for two One-Day Internationals, before Sri Lanka visit the same venue on 18th and 21st May.
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