HISTORY
Cricket is not gained more popularity in Scotland in comparison to country’s southern neighbor England. The Scotland cricket team is a younger cricket team in the world. This team represents the nation Scotland in the game of cricket. They got the membership of the International Cricket Council (ICC) in 1994 and is controlled by Cricket Scotland. They qualified for the Cricket World Cup in 1999, but they lost all their five matches and was eliminated in the preliminary round. They also participated in 2003 Cricket world cup, 2004,2005 ICC International Cup. They gained One Day International status in 2006 and played their first One Day International outside of World Cups against Pakistan in June 2006. This cricket team had also participated in 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006 European Championships. In 2004, inaugural ICC Intercontinental Cup, this team won the victory against Ireland and Netherlands and reached in the semi-finals. In the semi final, they defeated Kenya and reached in the final. In the final, they defeated Canada and won the inaugural ICC Intercontinental Cup. However, in 2005 ICC Intercontinental Cup, they failed in the first round. In 2008, Scotland played a tri-series against New Zealand and Ireland. Scotland beat Ireland but lost their match against New Zealand. They also participated in 2009 ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier in Belfast and qualified for ICC 20-20 Word Cup 2009. This team produces some good players including Ryan Watson, Dougie Brown and Paul Hoffmann etc. Ryan is the best batsman in the Scottish side. His averages 47 in first class cricket and 45.66 from 3 ODIs. He made a thrilling 80 against Pakistan. Dougie Brown is all rounder for Scotland. He has over 560 wickets in first class cricket and has scored over 8500 runs. In the current squad, Gavin Hamilton is the leading Scottish batsman and Craig Wright is the highest ever wicket taker in Scotland.
SCOTLAND IN ICC 20-20 WORLD CUP
In the first 20-20 world cup 2007, Scotland team was placed in the ‘D’ group along with the India and Pakistan. This team had played their first match in the inaugural ICC World Twenty 20 against Pakistan and lost by 51 runs, despite 46 from their player Fraser Watts. The team did not get a chance to play their other Group D opponents India due to rain. So they did not qualify for the Super 8. This team participated in 2009 ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier in Belfast. In the initial round, they were defeated by Ireland, but gained the victory over Bermuda and reached in the semi final. In the semi final, they gained 9 wicket victory over Kenya . Then they qualified for the 20-20 World cup 2009, taking the place of Zimbabwe after it withdrew from the tournament. Now this team is taking preparation to the 2009 ICC 20-20 World Cup which being held in England in June. In this 20-20 World Cup, Scotland will compete with well-established cricketing nations New Zealand and South Africa in Group D. Gavin Hamilton is the current captain and Peter Steindl is the current coach of this team. The Scotland squad for this World Cup is in the following,
Squad : Gavin Hamilton (Captain), Richie Berrington, John Blain, Kyle Coetzer, Majid Haq, Gordon Drummond, Niel McCallum, Dewald Nel, Navdeep Poonia, Glenn Rogers, Colin Smith (Wicketkeeper), Jan Stander, Ryan Watson, Fraser Watts, Craig Wright.
UPDATES
Scotland defeated by New Zealand in their first match in 2009 T20 World cup. Scotland took 89 runs in the rain interrupted match from 7 overs. However, New Zealand achieved the target within six overs. Scotland’s scoring rate remained strong with Watson’s fellow opener Navdeep Poonia and Kyle Coetzer sharing a half-century stand in just 22 deliveries. The final three balls of Scotland’s innings resulted in wickets, preventing them adding to their score of 89. Thus they defeated by 7 wickets. KJ Coetzer was the top scorer , who took 33 runs from 15 balls.
In their second match in the 2009 World cup Scotland defeated by South Africa by 130 runs. Scotland won the toss and they send South Africa to bat first. It came to being a wrong decision when South Africa scored 211 runs. Chasing a huge score 212 , they bowled out for 81 in 15.4 overs. Kyle Coetzer was the only batsman, who showed some resistance with 41. Scotland was never in the hunt as the team kept losing wickets at regular intervals. They were out from T20 world cup with the second defeat in the group matches.
