Scotland 289 for 9 (Leask 91*, McBride 56, Adair 3-57) beat Ireland 286 for 8 (Campher 120, Dockrell 69, McMullen 5-34) by one wicket
Curtis Campher produced a magnificent hundred to haul Ireland back from the brink but it was not enough as Michael Leask masterminded an incredible heist to guide Scotland to a tense one-wicket victory at the Queens Sports Club in Bulawayo.
Set 287 for a win, Scotland began in sprightly fashion, scoring 56 for the loss of just one wicket in the powerplay. But soon they were struggling at 122 for 6 as, barring Christopher McBride, none of their top six reached 20.
Chris Greaves, Mark Watt and Leask, though, kept the game alive. Leask stitched a 30-run partnership with Greaves before adding 82 off just 67 balls with Watt. The latter's 43-ball 47 took the pressure off Leask and wrested the momentum back from Ireland. Watt fell in the 46th over but Leask kept finding the fence regularly and brought the equation down to 16 required from 12 balls.
The penultimate over, bowled by Josh Little, went for eight runs. With eight needed from the final over, Leask - helped by Harry Tector's misfield at the long-on - hit a boundary off Mark Adair on the first ball. However, Safyaan Sharif was dismissed off the third ball and then Chris Sole played out a dot, before Leask scampered through for a bye on the fifth. With two needed off the final ball, Leask swung hard and got a thick inside edge that beat the wicketkeeper and sent the Scotland players into an absolute frenzy.
Earlier in the day, a searing opening spell from Brandon McMullen reduced Ireland to 33 for 4. Paul Stirling was the first to depart, nicking one to first slip before McMullen trapped Balbirnie for a first-ball duck with a nip-backer. Tector denied him a hat-trick but could do nothing about another excellent outswinger in the fifth over, edging it to second slip.
Lorcan Tucker sought to counter-punch but, after a reprieve in the sixth over, fell to Watt in the ninth over. Campher, who did not play against Oman, found an able ally in George Dockrell. The latter did not look very comfortable at the start, especially against the pace of Sole, but stayed in the middle long enough to capitalise.
Incredible effort to beat the more favoured, more resourced Irish team today. Even more incredible given half the team was severely ill. #character101 https://t.co/4ZeARKAWhx
— Glenn Pocknall (@GlennPocknall) June 21, 2023
From over 11 to 40, Ireland not only scored 145 but lost just one more wicket. That foundation enabled them to ransack 107 in the last ten to get to 286, a total that looked sufficient until Leask and Watt got together.
This was not a spotless Scotland display, however. Their decision-making, at times, was questionable. McMullen, who picked up three wickets in the powerplay, did not bowl in the middle overs at all. When he returned, he bagged two more to complete his five-wicket haul. He was then taken out of the attack for the last over of the innings, in which Scotland ended up conceding 18. Their bowlers gave away 18 wides, and their fielders put down three chances - the most expensive being of Dockrell when he was on 4.
