Scotland cricket captain Richie Berrington hailed his side’s efforts as they delivered a marvelous win over West Indies at the T20 World Cup.
An unbeaten 66 from opener George Munsey helped Scotland to 160 for five, with the spinners doing the trick in the Windies innings to bowl them out for 118.
It is up their with Scotland’s biggest results in international cricket, toppling the 2012 and 2016 champions. They progressed from the first group stage at last year’s tournament and started that campaign off with a win against another full-member nation in Bangladesh.
“We’re obviously delighted to get off to a winning start like that against West Indies,” said Berrington. “We have a lot of good memories from last year’s World Cup when we won our first game against Bangladesh. We took a lot of belief from that.
“The boys showed today how good we can be. We know if we can execute our skills well we can give ourselves a good chance. It was brilliant to get a winning start.
“At one stage we thought we might have got a few more after getting off to a good start. West Indies pulled things back a little but we knew it was a competitive score. If we executed our skills in the field and with the ball we would certainly give ourselves a chance. We managed to do that.
“We knew we were going to have to play well against a very good team. But we back our skills and on the day it’s just about executing them as well as we can. It’s a big win but the belief was always there. The fielders were excellent today and backed up the bowlers well.”
Spinner Mark Watt was a stand-out performer in 2021 for Scotland and came to the fore again in Hobart.
He returned figures of three-for-12 off his four overs and showed his trademark invention – the 24-yard delivery which got rid of Windies batsman Brandon King.
“He is a big character in our dressing room, a great team man and he is made for the big occasion so I have no doubt you will see plenty more of him,” added Berrington.
“He has been a key player for us for a long period of time now even though the is still quite young, he is a great part of this group and I am sure he will go from strength to strength.
Bowl the 24 yarder….. https://t.co/4oTDWxYMP9
— Kyle Coetzer (@MeerGoose11) October 17, 2022
“We have got a very good analyst (George McNiel) in our set up so it is something we do a lot of work with. I know there are a couple of bowlers who really like using it (data) out on the field to make sure they have their plans nailed, but for me you still have to go a lot with instinct in terms of decisions you need to make, so it is different for different people and good to get a balance.”
Aberdeen’s Michael Leask picked up two wickets for 15 in his four overs, including the Windies captain Nicholas Pooran.
He was also involved in the runout of Akeal Hosein, as ex-Aberdeenshire wicket-keeper, Matthew Cross threw him the ball at the non-striker’s end.
Scotland won their first three games last year, seeing off Oman and Papua New Guinea after beating Bangladesh, but arguably face a tougher group this time around.
They take on Ireland on Wednesday morning (5am GMT) and face Zimbabwe on Friday, with all their games at Hobart in Tasmania.
“As a group, we will enjoy the moment together, but we know there is a lot more to play for and there is a quick turnaround, so we’ll be ready to go come Wednesday,” added Berrington.
