Scotland were defeated in their second match at the ICC under-19 men’s World Cup by hosts West Indies in St Kitts on Monday.
The Sky Sports cameras were on Captain Charlie Peet and his charges as they looked to build on an encouraging – albeit in defeat – performance against Sri Lanka on Friday.
Muhaymen Majeed of Renfrew CC and Ruaridh McIntyre of Carlton CC came into the Scots XI for Christopher Cole and Jamie Cairns.
However, at Warner Park, Basseterre, the Scots were always up against it batting first in the Group D clash against a strong West Indies bowling attack.
In the end the Scots lost by seven wickets as 95 all out played 96-3 and Peet said: “We are disappointed with that performance.
“We came into this game hoping to cause an upset, but we didn’t apply ourselves well with the bat and there were a few loose shots which didn’t help, we have to value our wickets more than that.
“There is not time to wallow, we now have another big game against Australia in a couple of days and we want to show people what we can do and not leave anything out there.”
Head Coach Gordon Drummond added: “It was a disappointing day for the guys.
“We felt the squad was in a good place ahead of the match having taken a bit of belief from the Sri Lanka game, our preference would have probably been to bowl first, but with the bat we started quite well before losing two quick wickets at the end of the opening 10 overs.
“That denting our ability to get things going and then sporadically we kept losing wickets and could not get enough runs on the board. Olly [Davidson] batted well, but 95 wasn’t going to be enough.
“We were then chasing wickets in the second half because we know taking wickets puts pressure on and that is what we were trying to do. To be fair the guys bowled and field pretty well, but the disappointing thing is that this West Indies team, in our eyes, was definitely beatable and we didn’t post a good enough total to give ourselves a chance.
“The guys are hurting, but we have two days to regroup and we are looking forward to taking on Australia.”
Shiva Sankar was the real problem early on, having opener Charlie Tear caught by skipper Giovonte Depeiza for just two in the third over.
The same bowler then took the wickets of Sam Elstone and Tom Mackintosh – the latter for a first ball duck – with the last two balls of the ninth over.
That left the Scots 29-3 and although Jack Jarvis, who scored a half century against Sri Lanka, survived Sankar’s hat-trick ball at the start of the 11th over he was gone soon after.
Anderson Mahase had him caught in the deep by Sankar and 42-4 became 57-5 in the 20th over when Majeed also fell to the same bowler for 11.
Through all of this left handed opener Oliver Davidson was standing first and he and Rafay Khan put on 15 for the sixth wicket when the latter went for two off the bowling of Mckenny Clark.
Lyle Robertson then went for a duck off Onaje Amory and when Peet failed to trouble the scorers it was 72-8.
Sean Fischer-Keogh was the ninth wicket to fall and then, in the 36th over, Harborne CC’s Davidson was run out for a hard fought 43 from 93 balls.
That left McIntyre stranded on six not out as the Scots were all out for 95.
Five West Indies bowlers took scalps, led by 3-18 from Sankar off seven overs.
Scotland knew they had to take wickets early in the West Indies reply in this 50-over match and, although Fischer-Keogh and Robertson probed early on the opposition openers gave their side a good platform.
Shaqkere Parris was on 20 not out and Matthew Nandu eight as they reached 37-0 off seven overs.
The very next ball Jarvis struck, having Nandu caught by Majeed to give Scotland a little bit of hope.
With the last ball of the 11th over Peet bowled Parris for 26 and then, in the 16th over, Davidson had Rivaldo Clarke caught by Tear behind the stumps.
At that point the hosts were 66-3, but a 30-run fourth wicket partnership saw them home in the 20th over.
Next up for the Scots is their final group match with Australia on Wednesday (9am local time, 1pm GMT) at Conaree Sports Club, Basseterre.
