West Indies suffer defeat at hands of Scotland
West Indies stumbled at their first hurdle when they went under by 42 runs to Scotland in the opening Group B match of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022. Batting first, the Scottish made 160-5 off their 20 overs on a good batting surface at Bellerive Oval on Monday evening. West Indies had a good batting powerplay but then found the going tough and were bowled out for 118 off 18.3 overs.
Scoreboard here: https://www.windiescricket.com/matches/210749/#scorecard
George Munsey scored an unbeaten 66 from 53 balls to lift Scotland. Jason Holder was brilliant with the ball and ended with figures of 3-0-14-2, while fast bowler Alzarri Joseph was also impressive with 4-0-28-2. They stemmed the flow of runs in the middle overs and helped to limit the scoring after the left-handed Munsey and Michael Jones (20) added 55 for the first wicket in 6.2 overs.
HOLDER TOPSCORES
In the second half, Holder launched a late rearguard as he topscored with 38 including four fours and a six, as the asking rate reached 15 per over. Earlier in the innings Kyle Mayers provided a brisk start with 20 off 12 balls as West Indies reached 53-2 in the powerplay to keep up with the required rate.
The major damage was done by left-arm spinner Mark Watt (3-12) who opened the bowling and took the wickets of Brandon King at the top of the order, and later Odean Smith and Joseph in the latter stages. Pacer Brad Wheal (2-32) and off-spinner Michael Leask (2-15) also shared the wickets.
MUST BEAT ZIMBABWE!
West Indies Head Coach Phil Simmons spoke after the match and said the team was disappointed with the results.
“I think it’s just too many soft dismissals. I think as batsmen you have to pay a lot more attention to your wicket. And I think every time, we play we are up there with the run rate. It doesn’t matter who we are playing against, but we keep losing wickets and soft wickets. So, I think that I've been trying to remedy it for the last couple of months. Doesn't seem like it's there yet,’ Simmons said.
He said they will now look ahead to Wednesday night’s second encounter against Zimbabwe, which is now a must-win to qualify for the Super 12s stage of the event.
“We need to beat Zimbabwe first. That’s the first step as we go along. When we get back here at this time on Wednesday, then we may be thinking a lot different … so we've just got to think about Zimbabwe right now.”