Scots face must-win clash with Thailand following defeat by Ireland

Scotland’s female cricketers now face a crucial third group match against Thailand tomorrow after yesterday’s nine-wicket loss to Ireland in the ICC World T20 global qualifiers in the Netherlands.

On Saturday, the Scots had started their campaign with a bang, defeating Uganda with ease. Ireland was always going to be a tougher test in Amstelveen and so it proved, Scotland’s 98-2 batting first not enough to cause the Irish problems.

The loss means that Scotland need to defeat Thailand in Utrecht to make sure of a semifinal place with two teams from the eight involved eventually going through to the showpiece event in the West Indies later this year. Sarah Bryce, who top scored for Scotland against Ireland with 49 not out off 55 balls, said: “It was a tough match for us. We got a bit stuck in the first five overs of our innings and did not rotate the strike as much as we would have liked.

“We did manage to get up to 98 which we thought was a total that gave us something to bowl at, but Ireland batted well.

“There is a day off on Monday and we will regroup and get ready for the Thailand test.”

As Bryce pointed out, the Scots’ batting effort got off to a cagey start and when Lorna Jack fell for seven from 17 balls at the start of the sixth over they were 15-1.

Bryce and her older sister Kathryn, the skipper, had put on a good partnership against Uganda and they did the same here.

They progressed the score to 63 before Kathryn was out for 12 at the end of the 14th over. Sarah continued to try and push the score up over 100 along with Rachel Scholes (16 not out) and they ended just two runs short.

In reply, Clare Shillington and Cecelia Joyce put together a 90 run partnership for Ireland. Shillington made 47 before being bowled by Kathryn Bryce, with Joyce making 35 not out as they got home in the 16th over.

The Thailand match takes place at 12pm local/11am BST tomorrow.