Confidence now sky high but Macleod wary of Hong Kong

● Architect of win over Afghanistan warns Scots they must keep feet on the ground

Having savoured Sunday’s morale-boosting win over Afghanistan, Scotland’s cricketers yesterday turned their attention to the next challenge in their World Cup qualifying quest in Zimbabwe.

The Scots could not have made a better start than by sweeping aside the team ranked tenth in the ICC’S official one-day international table but their seven-wicket success will count for little should they slip up against Hong Kong at the Bulawayo Athletic Club today.

That was a point made forcibly by captain Kyle Coetzer in the immediate aftermath of Sunday’s success and it was emphasised again yesterday in team meetings.

The Scots need look back no further than their last encounter with Hong Kong just over a year ago which resulted in a seven-wicket defeat for Coetzer’s side in Abu Dhabi. Calum Macleod, the undoubted star of the show on Sunday with a peerless 157no, is also wary of the next opponents. He said: “Beating Afghanistan has given everyone a great boost at the start of the tournament but that result is in the past now.

“We’ve played Hong Kong a few times in white ball cricket and they are a very dangerous side with some explosive players. The same can probably be said about every team in this competition.

“They are all very evenly matched and we know we have to keep raising our standards, preparing properly and then implementing our plans.

“I had my own personal plan for facing Afghanistan’s spinners and luckily it came off. The great thing about this team is we’ve proved recently that we have matchwinners all the way down the order.”

Macleod’s point is borne out by a glance at some individual highlights during the current winter which has seen Matthew Cross notch up scores of 107no and 102no, Macleod hitting 154 against Papua New Guinea, newcomer Michael Jones scoring 74 on debut and Michael Leask (91) and George Munsey (77) sharing a record seventh-wicket stand against Ireland just last week.

All that before you consider the sparkling performances of Coetzer himself, whose 107 in last summer’s victory over Zimbabwe was recently voted the Associate Batting Performance of 2017.

Macleod was also quick to emphasise the quality available to coach Grant Bradburn in the bowling ranks and the part they played against Afghanistan.

With the experienced Ali Evans and the county duo of Stu Whittingham and Chris Sole not even featuring against Afghanistan, Bradburn has plenty of options in the pace department while Mark Watt and Tom Sole continue to form a promising spin pairing.

While rightly respecting today’s opponents, Scotland appear to hold the aces on this occasion, having produced several notable performances since that defeat in the desert, including wins against Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe as well as Sunday’s victory – only the 0 Batting hero Calum Macleod, left, and George Munsey walk off in triumph after Scotland’s stunning victory over Afghanistan. second time they had beaten the Afghans in an ODI.

Hong Kong, meanwhile, make their tournament bow, not having been involved on the opening day and they may be a little rusty, the weather having affected their preparations with only one official warm-up match completed and resulting in a heavy defeat by the Netherlands.

In today’s other Group B match the Afghans will bid to bounce back against hosts Zimbabwe, who opened their campaign with a convincing 116-run win over Nepal.