Scotland were punished by a superb Ireland comeback as they rescued a six-wicket win at the T20 World Cup.
Ireland had been restricted to 61-for-four, chasing Scotland’s 176, in the 10th over, when Curtis Campher and George Dockrell were brought together.
Campher delivered an outstanding knock of 72 off 32 balls and with Dockrell (39 not out) turned the game on its head to win by six wickets in Hobart.
It was a bitter pill to swallow for Scotland, who looked to be heading for a second consecutive win after Michael Jones (86 off 55) anchored their innings, supported by captain Richie Berrington (37) and Matthew Cross (28).
They now head into the final game of the qualifying group on Friday, knowing they need to beat Zimbabwe to stand a chance of progressing to the Super 12.
“We know how tough these group stages are – we experienced it last year,” said Berrington. “We had to win all three games, so we were never of the mindset that the job was done.
“It was pleasing we dominated a lot of the game. Unfortunately, we didn’t manage to get over the line today but we always knew it was going to come down to the last game, whether we won today or not.
“Our focus is on moving on from here and putting in a strong performance on Friday.”
After losing opener George Munsey early Jones’ knock got Scotland back on track, with six fours and four sixes to his name before holing out to Mark Adair of Josh Little’s bowling.
Campher removed both Berrington and Cross with the ball but Scotland’s total of 176 looked more than competitive.
“In general it’s been really good,” said Berrington. “Obviously we’ve had two guys up the top having really good knocks with Michael Jones who I thought was exceptional all the way through his innings, even in the way he finished off. That’s really exciting to see.
HUGE! 💥
Scotland’s Michael Jones smashed a SIX onto the roof against Ireland! 😮
Jones scored 86 from 55 balls as Scotland posted 176-5 🏴
Watch Ireland's run chase live on Sky Sports Cricket #T20WorldCup 🏏 pic.twitter.com/ToAj6GQGJL
— Sky Sports Cricket (@SkyCricket) October 19, 2022
“A positive is that we know there’s still more to come, particularly from the middle-order and towards the back end. Hopefully, come Friday if we can fire in that department then we can keep getting better and better.”
Scotland took wickets at fairly regular intervals in the first half of the Ireland innings but Campher and Dockrell came together to mount a stunning comeback.
They shared in a partnership of 119 to get the Irish home with an over to spare, to keep their tournament hopes alive after an opening-day loss against Zimbabwe.
“We felt after seeing the other day it was definitely going to be a competitive score,” added Berrington. “Potentially we could have got a few more towards the back end but with the runs we had on the board, we felt like it should have been enough.
“Through large parts of the game we executed well and there’ll definitely be areas we’ll look to improve. But you have to give a lot of credit to George Dockrell and Curtis Campher for the partnership they put on. It was a match-winning partnership.
“There was a little momentum shift there (13th over) and we knew they’d look to go towards that short side. But we still felt we were in the game all the way through if we were able to pick up a couple of wickets.
“Unfortunately we weren’t able to do that and they played exceptionally well.”
