Scotland’s Cricket World Cup League 2 campaign began in disappointing fashion, as Canada ran out seven-wicket winners in Dubai.
It proved to be an excellent toss to win for the Canadians, who utilised the best of the conditions to restrict the Scots to 215-8, before comfortably chasing down their target inside 41 overs.
After a watchful start from George Munsey and Andy Umeed, the latter was the first to fall in the eighth over with the Saltires total on 22. Umeed, on ODI debut, was caught at the wicket by Srimantha Wijeyeratne from the bowling of Ammar Khalid for just eight.
Brandon McMullen started brightly with a sweetly-struck straight drive for four, but he would come unstuck on 19, attempting to dispatch a short delivery from Saad Bin Zafar but only picking out Aaron Johnson in the ring.
Richie Berrington would fall shortly after, bowled by Nicholas Kirton for two.
George Munsey would reach his half-century from 83 deliveries, and then looked to accelerate as he punished any loose deliveries from the Canada attack.
However, after guiding Scotland to 114, he would fall for 68, attempting to punish a short ball from Kirton, striking straight at Shreyas Movva on the deep mid-wicket boundary who took a comfortable catch.
That brought Matthew Cross and Michael Leask together, and the pair began to find runs more regularly than at any point previously, rotating the strike well as they added 50 in just 53 deliveries.
Dillon Heyliger would make the vital breakthrough in the 40th over to remove Cross, caught by Nicholas Kirton, to leave the Saltires 164-5.
Scotland would fail to find any rhythm in the closing overs, losing wickets at regular intervals as Leask (40), Mark Watt (21) and Scott Currie (5) all fell, as they finished on 215-8.
That seemed a competitive total based on the three games that had taken place on the same ground in the last week, but Canada’s top order had other ideas.
Aaron Johnson broke the back of the run chase, striking a six off the final ball of Safyaan Sharif’s over, and when Mark Watt was introduced in the seventh over, he would send his first two deliveries over the ropes.
Watt would gain his revenge in the following over, catching out Johnson with a delivery from behind the stumps and trapping him LBW for 43 from just 28 deliveries.
Canada had raced to 64 in nine overs when that first wicket fell, allowing Pargat Singh and Wijeyeratne ample time to build their innings.
The pair would go largely untroubled as they added 115 for the second wicket, both passing the half-century mark with Singh finding the boundary regularly as Canada closed in on their target.
Scott Currie would strike to remove Wijeyeratne for 56, Richie Berrington taking a sharp catch low down at cover to bring the Hampshire man his first international wicket.
Chris Greaves removed Navneet Dhaliwal, caught by Brad Currie on the mid-wicket boundary, and it would be left to Harsh Thaker to strike the winning blow, whilst Singh finished unbeaten on 87.
Stevie Gilmour, Interim Head Coach, said:
“It’s obviously not the start we wanted to CWCL2, but as we’ve just discussed as a group, it’s now all about how we respond to this defeat ahead of the next match.
“We weren’t quite able to establish enough partnerships with the bat, or apply enough pressure with the ball, so there are plenty of things we need to work on ahead of Sunday.
“We’ll take everything that we can out of today’s game, as there were positives, but we need to learn quickly for the game with UAE, and given it’s only 36 hours away we’re looking forward to already.”
