Mumbai: Michael Jones’ brisk 71 steered Scotland to a competitive 170 for 7 in their inconsequential T20 World Cup Group C match against Nepal here Tuesday.
Both teams were out of reckoning for the Super Eights, with the West Indies and England advancing to the next round from the group.
Barring Jones, who struck eight fours and three sixes in his 45-ball knock, Scottish batters failed to convert their starts but still managed to finish at a competitive total on a flat deck here.
It was Jones who did the heavy-lifting in his 80-run stand for the opening wicket with George Munsey, who failed to get any momentum despite staying in the middle till the halfway mark of Scotland’s innings.
While the right-handed Jones pierced gaps comfortably and met the ball with the sweet part of his bat to get boundaries at regular intervals, all that Munsey could do was play a second fiddle while managing 27 runs off 29 balls with four boundaries.
Munsey’s frustration of not being able to get a move-on was apparent when he fell on the final ball of the 10th over, connecting with an innocuous full toss from Rohit Paudel with the toe end of the bat. The Scottish opener smacked his bat in frustration when Sundeep Jora completed a fine diving catch in front of him at long-on.
But Jora and Nepal appeared to have claimed a skier when McMullen hit one off Nandan Yadav on the first ball of the 14th over.
Positioned at mid-on, Jora did not have to move more than five paces, but to his credit, he kept his eyes on the ball. When the ball eventually did come back to him, Jora didn’t realise that it went through his hands and hit the turf while he fell on the ground in the process.
Jones continued to unleash his big hits and smacked a 94m hit straight into the balcony of his dressing room, with the ball settling into the hands of his teammate Tom Bruce.
However, Jones’ innings ended soon after when Kami, coming round the wicket in the 16th over, cleaned up the Scotland opener and took a brilliant one-handed grab to take a return catch off McMullen.
Scotland lost all momentum in the later half, especially after the dismissal of Jones, with Kami returning 3/25 and Nandan Yadav taking 2/34.
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