Scotland captain Preston Mommsen has expressed relief at having secured the full four points from a pair of WCL Championship outings against Nepal after both contests were marred by poor weather. The two wins put Scotland level on four points with the Netherlands after the first round of play, with both sides scheduled to face off later this summer at the start of round two.
"Very happy, very satisfied to come away with four points," Mommsen said after Scotland's nine-wicket win on Duckworth-Lewis over Nepal following the continuation of the game into Saturday's reserve day. "That's obviously what we wanted to come away with at the start. There were some challenges with the weather but we got through it, so credit to the ground staff here for getting us on."
Several days of rain in the lead-up to the first match on Wednesday resulted in a wet outfield that caused play to be reduced to 36 overs. Scotland was able to hold off a furious Nepal rally in a three-run win while the hosts won a key toss on Friday morning to put Nepal in under difficult conditions with rain falling intermittently in the first innings, but never enough to take the players off.
"Obviously winning the toss and bowling first in pretty helpful conditions, it was a fresh wicket," Mommsen said. "There was some steady rain throughout our bowling innings so that kind of gave the surface a little bit more grease and a little bit more carry for our seam bowlers. I think we showed if there is anything in the wicket, we're certainly capable of finding that and it was slightly more difficult for them to bat on."
With the second innings target reduced from 168 in 50 overs to 110 in 22, the team reprised their explosive efforts during the World T20 Qualifiers last month. A 91-run stand between George Munsey and Matthew Cross allowed Scotland to reach the target in just 13.5 overs and Mommsen praised the pair's aggression.
"That's the way we like to play," Mommsen said. "You would have seen that in the last few weeks and it was no different here. We want to put pressure on the bowlers and take the attack to the opposition. Crossy and Munsey did that very well today. That's something that as a team, we're trying to develop, the intent to hit boundaries and at the same time knocking it around and being very busy, which those two were."
Though Mommsen was satisfied with the batting and bowling efforts, he still feels that there is plenty of room for improvement in the fielding department. Nepal captain Paras Khadka was dropped twice on Wednesday during his near match-winning partnership with Anil Mandal and the memory of Michael Leask dropping Wesley Barresi on 31 before he made 75 in Netherlands' 32-run win over Scotland at Edinburgh during the World T20 Qualifier is still fresh in the mind.
"There's obviously still huge amounts that we need to work on, in particular the fielding. We were below par in these last two games. In the qualifiers, it let us down against the Dutch heavily, dropped catches. So that's something we need to address and set about some new plans moving forward to make sure we improve that part of our game."
On the bright side, Mommsen was positive about the depth shown in winning the World T20 Qualifiers last month without county players Matt Machan and Freddie Coleman, while both players and seamer Josh Davey were also absent for the wins over Nepal. The captain expects competition for spots to get more intense in the lead-up to the upcoming Intercontinental Cup and WCL Championship fixtures against Netherlands.
"Guys will have a few days off and then come together. We've got some fixtures against some County 2nd XI teams in the coming week and then we have the Dutch series in Holland. They'll be crucial games. That will be a strong Dutch team, so we'll have to be at our best."