Berrington’s brilliance is all in vain
Scotland’s winning run came to an end as they suffered a crushing fivewicket defeat to Namibia in Dubai.
The Scots went into the Dafanews Summer Bash encounter bidding for a sixth consecutive victory ahead of the T20 World Cup later this month.
But, despite a brilliant halfcentury from Richie Berrington, they made a disappointing 137 for eight before the Namibians cruised to their target with 14 balls to spare.
Coach Shane Burger admitted: “Obviously it was a below-par performance but we’ve learned a lot.
“It’s always tough to go backto-back, especially when you’ve played an afternoon game and then have a morning game in these extreme conditions.
“But that’s absolutely no excuse. We need to make sure that we are able to manage that, which is something that we have done pretty well over the last month.
“I thought Richie Berrington was excellent with the bat. He really anchored the innings in a tough position.
“And from a bowling point of view, Mark Watt was fantastic.
“They’re a dangerous team. We knew we’d have to bring one of our better games, which we just didn’t do.”
Burger made five changes to the side that beat Papua New Guinea on Friday but, sent in to bat, the Scots were soon in trouble on 21 for three.
It took familiar heroics from Berrington – Scotland’s leading scorer in T20 internationals – to dig them out of a hole.
Berrington took the attack to a potent Nambian attack with a series of trademark strokes on his way to a 46-ball 60, with four boundaries and two maximums before being bowled in the final over.
Josh Davey raised hopes of a comeback when he bowled Zane Green in the first over of Namibia’s reply, but a 93-run stand between Stephen Baard and Craig Williams took the game away from the Scots.
Scotland staged a mini-recovery, thanks to a superb spell from Mark Watt, who claimed two wickets for 11 runs from his four overs. But the damage had been done.
The Scots have warm-ups against the Netherlands on Tuesday and Namibia on Thursday before their World Cup opener against Bangladesh inoman next Sunday.