Scotland have been eliminated from the T20 World Cup after a five-wicket defeat to Zimbabwe in Hobart.
The Scots laboured to a meagre total of 132 for six on a sticky wicket in Hobart and while they held Zimbabwe in check for a good portion of their reply, the tally was not enough to defend.
George Munsey (54 from 51 balls) top-scored for Scotland but a 10-over spell throughout the middle of their innings without a boundary looked like it would have a decisive impact on the outcome.
A couple of early wickets looked to have sparked the game into a proper contest but the partnership from Zimbabwe captain Craig Ervine (58) and Sikandar Raza (40 off 23) set the foundations for victory.
Scotland beat West Indies in their opening pool fixture but were undone by an Ireland comeback on Wednesday. Richie Berrington’s men were unable to follow up their Super 12 qualification from a year ago and will head home from Australia.
“We took a lot of learnings from the last World Cup,” said skipper Berrington. “We came here to get through to the next phase and it’s disappointing we’ve not managed to do that.
“We can take some positives from the performances we’ve put in and the way we’ve played our cricket.
“Looking at the other night games, it was still a pretty good surface. We backed ourselves to set a good target and with the bowlers we have, we could defend it.
“Unfortunately we didn’t manage to get to that score we wanted.”
Scotland struggled to score more than a run a ball with the bat, with only a cameo from Aberdonian Michael Leask (12 from nine) breaking the shackles of a splendid Zimbabwe bowling performance.
Mark Watt was his usual economical self with the ball and dismissed Ervine late on to give Scotland a small chance of an unlikely result. Aberdeen-born Josh Davey (two-for-16) was the pick of the Scotland bowlers.
The lack of cricket for Scotland heading into the tournament was well-documented. They have played a slew of one-day internationals this year but only one T20 fixture: a warm-up game for this competition against the Netherlands.
“You’re not going to go wrong by playing more cricket. As a team the more experience and exposure we get, we’re only going to get better,” added Berrington.
“We came into this tournament prepared and ready for what was ahead of us. Unfortunately we haven’t quite nailed it in the last two games when we’ve needed it.
“Moving forward we want to try get as many games as we can and improve as a team and play at the highest level possible.
“We’ve still got a World Cricket League which is going to be really important for the World Cup qualifiers next summer in 50-over cricket.
“We need to move on from here and we’ll have a tour in December, where 50-over cricket will be our focus for a while. Hopefully we’ll finish top of that table heading into the qualifiers.”
