Burger wary of conditions for Oman clash

Shane Burger believes Scotland will be playing against the gruelling conditions as well as a top side when they tackle Oman in Muscat today.

The Scots continue their World Cup League 2 campaign against the tournament pace-setters in their own back yard where temperatures could top 40c.

Coach Burger, right, said: “We see this as being a really important game in the bigger context of the CWCL2 tournament with Oman at the top of the table. Obviously, they are playing in their own conditions, so they understand the wickets really well.

“They’ve also played a lot of cricket, especially in Cricket World Cup League 2.

“They are a strong team, they have a lot of all-rounders and have strength all the way down the order. We’ll need to be wise with team selection to get us through the double-header.

“The extreme nature of the environment here is a challenge.

“They say the temperatures are around 38 degrees, but it’s more like 46 out on the park, and clearly Oman are used to that whereas we are still acclimatising.

“But the heat acclimatisation training we did back in Edinburgh has stood us in good stead.”

Scotland lie a hefty 13 points behind the Omanis in the seven-team table but have six games in hand.

The sides squared the series in the first round of matches in Aberdeen two years ago, Oman taking first blood before Hamza Tahir marked his arrival on the international stage with four wickets as the Scots hit back in the second match.

Victory today would see Scotland move to within a point of second top USA who have played six games more.