Star batsman Calum MacLeod believes Scotland’s historic victory against England in the one-off one-day cricket international in Edinburgh yesterday is a massive statement from the game in this country.
The former Durham and Warwickshire batsman excelled with an unbeaten 140 as the Saltires claimed the biggest result in their history by beating England, who went into the game ranked number one in the world.
It is barely three months since the Scots were at a low ebb after seeing their World Cup dreams dashed by bad weather and an umpiring call, rubbing salt into the wounds after the ICC decided to cut the number of participating nations at next year’s tournament.
Scotland went into the game against England with a point to prove and sealed a famous win in dramatic fashion, posting 371 before successfully defending the total in the penultimate over of the match and emerging triumphant by just six runs when Shariff got England’s Mark Wood leg before wicket.
MacLeod admitted the win would go down as one of the best for the team.
“It is up there,” he said. “This win has been coming for a couple of years since Grant (Bradburn) and Kyle (Coetzer) took over and pushed the aggressive cricket you saw.
“We showed we were capable of this last year against Sri Lanka and then to take the step up to beat a full England side, number one-ranked in the world, is a massive statement from Scottish cricket.
“It does not take away what happened in Zimbabwe and everyone’s feelings about the 10-team World Cup but this was a special day.”
Elated Scotland captain Kyle Coetzer said: “It was a very special day. Our coach Grant Bradburn dared us to create history out there.
“We did that in a massive amount. I am extremely proud and every member of the squad should feel the same way.”
“We didn’t play anywhere near to our best,” said England skipper Eoin Morgan. “We were miles off where we expect to be and didn’t do enough to win.”
