Watt shines as Scots boost World Cup hopes
MARK WATT was delighted after he claimed four wickets to help Scotland secure a moraleboosting T20 World Cup warm-up win over the Netherlands in Abu Dhabi last night.
“I thought we went about the first innings excellently,” he said after the Scots had set a modest target of 122 for their opponents.
“We were told that the wicket wasn’t the best beforehand, but we really put that to the back of our minds. Calum MacLeod really battled through the whole innings and got us to a good score with big boundaries and he ran really well through the middle with Michael Leask.
“I think 123 was a competitive score on this wicket. Second innings it was just one of those wickets that you want to roll up and take home with you.
“I thought Chris Greaves bowled excellently. He’s only had a handful of games and I thought he came in and bowled really well.
“I’m in good form and I feel like I’ve got a really good rhythm at the moment and when you’re on a good run you’ve just got to go with it.
“With performances like today I’m obviously ecstatic, but in the grand scheme of things it’s important not to get too confident going into the big games against Bangladesh, PNG and Oman [in the Twenty20 World Cup]. It’s great to be taking wickets but I want to be doing it in the big games that matter.”
Scotland’s top order had all struggled against a dominant Dutch pace attack, with Kyle Coetzer, George Munsey and Matthew Cross all making starts without going on.
It was left to MacLeod and Leask to provide the substance of the innings, MacLeod top-scoring with a valuable unbeaten 32 while Leask hit a 26-ball 30.
However a brilliant fourover spell of 2 for 11 from Tim van der Gugten, backed up by former East Kilbride star Fred Klaassen’s 2 for 21 restricted the Scots to 122-6.
Although the Scots were unable to get the breakthrough until Safyaan Sharif ripped through Stephan Myburgh’s defences with the last ball of the powerplay, they then stepped up to produce a fine display in the field.
Watt trapped the dangerous Ben Cooper in front before Greaves weighed-in with two wickets in an over to reduce the Netherlands to 53-4 at the halfway stage.
Greaves struck again, bowling the veteran Ryan ten Doeschate before Watt returned to take three late wickets as Scotland dismissed their rivals for just 90.
Scotland have a final warmup match against Namibia tomorrow before their World Cup gets underway against Bangladesh on Sunday.