Netherlands: 98/5 Scotland: 99/4 Scotland win by 6 wickets
Scotland’s women started their T20 World Cup qualifying campaign with a six wicket victory over the Netherlands in La Manga.
The Wildcats won the toss and elected to bowl holding the Netherlands to 98/5 on a slow pitch.
Chasing that modest total Scotland made a strong start with Sarah Bryce, fresh from victory in The Hundred, and Lorna Jack opening the batting.
Jack was first to fall having scored 21, while Bryce continued on to 46, batting alongside sister Kathryn until both fell on consecutive deliveries from Caroline de Lange with Megan McColl falling soon after.
It was left to the experienced pair of Abbi Aitken-Drummond and Katie McGill to see Scotland past their target with three-and-a-half overs to spare.
Scotland Head Coach Mark Coles was pleased to come away with a win, but sees plenty of areas for improvement: “It was a little bit up and down today. We started well with the ball but then we lost our way. Credit to the Dutch, they had a really good partnership.
“The fielding was a little bit dusty – we dropped a couple of catches – but if I was going to give it a mark I’d say 5/10, so we’re halfway. I thought Lorna and Sarah did a really good job opening the batting and then we lost our marbles a little bit so we need to address that.
“We’ll have a chat tonight and understand what we’re trying to achieve. We should have finished at two or three down, but it’s a win in what was potentially a bit of a banana skin game for us. Thankfully we ate the banana and didn’t slip on it.”
Scotland will face Ireland tomorrow in what is likely to be the key match of the tournament. Starting at 9.30am UK time the game will be live streamed on icc.tv.
