Coetzer admits his sorry Scots felt the heat in Texas defeat

Kyle Coetzer admitted Scotland were caught cold in the searing Texas heat as they slumped to a heavy defeat against USA on Saturday.

The Scots went into the World Cup League 2 clash in Texas on an eight-game unbeaten run in the competition.

But their hopes of reaching the global showpiece in India next year suffered a blow as they went down by 104 runs as they chased a victory target of 311.

Skipper Coetzer said: “We expect better in all departments – we clearly didn’t hit the standards we expect and were outplayed by a strong USA team.

“It’s extremely tough in this heat but we have to be better than that in the next game. We have to be prepared to turn up and really fight.”

The hosts had earlier won the toss and chose to bat first at the Houston venue, only the second ground in the USA to be accredited for One Day International status.

Opener Steven Taylor made a near run-a-ball 42, hitting seven boundaries, before he was caught by Hamza Tahir off Adrian Neill shortly after the USA had passed the half-century mark.

Captain Monank Patel added 29 to help the total on to 107 for the second wicket, with Sushant Modani’s 77 pushing the USA on towards 200 after the second drinks break.

Aaron Jones was out for 35 in the 40th over, then an unbeaten 60 from Gajanand Singh, who hit eight fours and a six off 39 balls, and Nisarg Patel’s 34 not out saw the USA finish at 310 for five. Neill collected two wickets for 49 in his eight-over spell.

Scotland had won all four of their one-day games in Dubai last month to sit second in the table, but with some 16 games in hand on leaders Oman in the tournament, which runs through to February 2023 as part of the World Cup qualification process.

However, their run chase in Pearland got off to a slow start, with just 27 on the board after 10 overs and opener Matthew Cross lasting only 12 balls as he was out for six.

Captain Coetzer made a resolute 28 and Calum MacLeod added 40, but the run rate continued to creep up as USA bowler Saurabh Netravalkar took four wickets.

George Munsey made his half-century, with 54 off 53 balls, but it was not enough to see Scotland home as the USA, ranked 18th in the world, closed out for a memorable victory.

Scotland played the USA again at Moosa Stadium yesterday and then face the United Arab Emirates tomorrow.

Scotland skipper Kyle Coetzer.