Scotland fail to break duck
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SCOTLAND’S long wait for a fi rst victory in a global tournament goes on after a 14- run defeat in their opening World Twenty20 match against Afghanistan yesterday.
Hopes rose during an opening stand of 84 in pursuit of 170- 5 in Nagpur that Preston Mommsen’s team might pull off a revenge success following their one- wicket loss to Afghanistan in Dunedin at last year’s World Cup.
But it was not to be, as George Munsey and Kyle Coetzer each fell short of a half- century – and then the boundaries dried up on the way to 156- 5.
Mohammad Shahzad ( 61) and skipper Asghar Stanikzai ( 55) underpinned Afghanistan’s total after they chose to bat Just pour a bottle of Cataclean into your fuel tank and it gets to work immediately. First it cleans your vehicle’s fuel system for greater mpg efficiency. Then it cleans the catalytic converter for fewer emissions and better performance. Finally Cataclean cleans the upper cylinder valve heads and stems resulting in improved compression and reduced valve sticking. Suitable for petrol and diesel engines. Supplied in a 475ml bottle fi rst under lights. The second- wicket pair put on 82 in 10 overs, the opener the aggressor and his captain more studied.
Then Munsey and Coetzer set up the chase in fi ne style. But after Coetzer pulled a long hop straight to deep square leg, Munsey missed a sweep two balls later and was lbw.
Matt Machan and Mommsen kept the result in doubt but, with 21 needed off the fi nal over, Scotland could not get over the line.
They will now fi nd it tough to qualify from Group B, in which Afghanistan and yesterday’s other winners Zimbabwe – who beat Hong Kong by 14 runs – are the front runners.
P& P
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Total £ IT IS a sign of changing times Stuart Broad found out via Twitter he was surplus to requirements when England fi nalised their squad for the World Twenty20 in India.
Broad was playing golf with bowling coach Ottis Gibson in South Africa when a few of the lads from the one- day squad started “tweeting about phone calls and stuff”.
There had been no phone call for him, no quiet heads- up in the hotel bar. Just, ‘ Thanks a lot Broady, after seven major ICC campaigns stretching back to the World T20 in 2007, your services will not be required’.
It was a decision he expected, having not played the format for England since the last World T20 in Bangladesh, where he captained them to an ignominious exit – but enough of that.
It still left him disappointed, however – “gutted” is his actual word.
“It will feel weird not being out there with them when the tournament gets under way,” he said. “But I believe they have the talent in that squad to win it, I really do.”
Typically for Broad, disappointment has not lingered. He is already using the time off to good effect, planning for a summer of cricket he will enter as the No1- ranked Test bowler in the world as well as putting some blocks in place for his future outside the game.
“I will be doing some media work for Sky and I am going to the Gold Cup at Cheltenham for the fi rst time,” he said. “I hope the boys go well but I am