HOBART: Twice winners West Indies crashed to a shocking 42-run defeat by Scotland in their T20 World Cup opener in Hobart on Monday, the second major upset inside two days at the global showpiece tournament.

The Caribbean side, who won the event in 2012 and 2016, were bundled out for 118 chasing 161 to beat the Scots a day after former champions Sri Lanka lost their Group ‘A’ opener to Namibia.

Left-arm spinner Mark Watt, who took 3-12, and off-spinner Michael Leask, with figures of 2-15, sealed victory for the associate team, who earlier rode opener George Munsey’s unbeaten 66 to post 160-5 in the Group ‘B’ match.

Jason Holder, who picked up two wickets with the ball, waged a lone battle for West Indies with a knock of 38 but it was not enough.

Scotland, who defeated another Test-playing nation in Bangladesh in the last T20 World Cup in 2021, outplayed West Indies in all departments.

“Obviously, it is a special win for us,” their captain Richard Berrington said. “There’s a lot of hard work that has gone into to get to this point over the last 12 months.

“We haven’t had as many T20 cricket as we would have liked but have played a lot of 50-overs cricket. It was about transferring those skills to the short form.”

With the top two sides from each of the two groups set to progress to the Super 12 stage, the defeat by Scotland left West Indies facing a must-win match against Zimbabwe on Wednesday.

“Tough loss for us, obviously disappointed. We have to work hard and win two games. I think it’s all about accountability and taking responsibility,” captain Nicholas Pooran said.

“We have to put this loss behind us and pick ourselves up. Sometimes, when you lose games and perform bad as players, you want the next game to come as fast as possible.”

Scotland seemed to thrive in the cold and overcast conditions at the Bellerive Oval and got off to a brisk start after they were put in to bat, racing to 52-0 in the sixth and final over of powerplay when rain forced the players off.

The interruption, however, seemed to halt their momentum with experienced all-rounder Holder sending back opener Michael Jones, who made 20, and number three Matthew Cross in quick succession after the restart.

Munsey batted through the innings but his 53-ball knock lacked fluency as the left-hander failed to find the boundary during the middle overs.

Kyle Mayers started aggressively in the West Indies innings with three boundaries, but mistimed a hit and was caught by Munsey off pace bowler Josh Davey. He made 20.

Evin Lewis and Brandon King hit back with a flurry of boundaries in their attempt to get quick runs in the first six overs of powerplay. But their stay was shortlived as Lewis fell for 14 and King was dismissed by Watt.

The two-time champions slipped further at 62-4 when Leask bowled Pooran for five.

Scotland’s bowlers kept chipping away as the rest of the West Indies batting caved in, despite a valiant innings by Holder, who was the last man out.

Scoreboard

SCOTLAND: G. Munsey not out 66 M. Jones b Holder 20 M. Cross c Brooks b Holder 3 R. Berrington c Mayers b Joseph 16 C. MacLeod c King b Smith 23 M. Leask b Joseph 4 C. Greaves not out 16 EXTRAS (LB-7, W-5) 12 TOTAL (for five wickets, 20 overs) 160 DID NOT BAT: M. Watt, J. Davey, S. Sharif, B. Wheal FALL OF WICKETS: 1-55 (Jones), 2-63 (Cross), 3-86 (Berrington), 4-117 (MacLeod), 5-125 (Leask) BOWLING: Mayers 2-0-24-0 (2w), Hosein 4-0-31-0, Joseph 4-0-28-2 (2w), McCoy 3-0-25-0, Holder 3-0-14-2, Smith 4-0-31-1 (1w)

WEST INDIES: K. Mayers c Munsey b Davey 20 E. Lewis c Jones b Wheal 14 B. King b Watt 17 N. Pooran b Leask 5 S. Brooks c Leask b Wheal 4 R. Powell c MacLeod b Leask 5 J. Holder c Greaves b Sharif 38 A. Hosein run out (Leask) 1 A. Joseph c Cross b Watt 0 O. Smith c Greaves b Watt 5 O. McCoy not out 2 EXTRAS (LB-2, W-5) 7 TOTAL (all out, 18.3 overs) 118 FALL OF WICKETS: 1-20 (Mayers), 2-53 (Lewis), 3-58 (King), 4-62 (Pooran), 5-69 (Powell), 6-77 (Brooks), 7-79 (Hosein), 8-79 (Joseph), 9-102 (Smith) BOWLING: Watt 4-0-12-3 (1w), Wheal 4-0-32-2, Davey 3-0-34-1 (1w), Sharif 3.3-0-23-1 (2w), Leask 4-0-15-2 (1w) RESULT: Scotland won by 42 runs.

Published in Dawn, October 18th, 2022