Scotland soundly beat Hong Kong in the second T20 international, and final fixture of the Braidwood Cup, on the back some tight bowling and Kyle Coetzer man of the match performance – Coetzer scored 70 off 40 balls which included six 6s.
Earlier, Hong Kong, who won the toss and decided to bowl first, dismissed Scotland opener George Munsey with the third ball of the match. His opening partner Coetzer however picked up regular boundaries to get Scotland back on track. He found support from Matthew Cross who scored four straight boundaries off Hong Kong skipper Tanwir Afzal. Cross scored 27 in the innings, second highest score for Scotland.
Haseeb Amjad and Nadeem Ahmed each took three wickets for Hong Kong and Scotland finished the innings at 161/9.
Hong Kong’s response did not begin well as Jamie Atkinson was caught off the first ball. The situation did not improve for the home side as they found themselves 8/4 after three overs.
Captain Tanwir Afzal restored some hopes for Hong Kong after he belted 30 runs in one over which included four 6s. He finished with 56 runs off 22 balls. Aizaz Khan also gave Hong Kong a late push with 20. But it was too little too late as Hong Kong ended the match 124 all out.
Bradley Wheal was the best bowler of the match with 3/20 off four overs. Richie Berrington also took 3 wickets for Scotland.
With Hong Kong’s victory in the shortened game yesterday, they split the Twenty20 series. Hong Kong won the only ODI and clinched the first ever Braidwood Cup series 2-1.
But 259 looked a far more intimidating total after Tanwir removed Scotland’s key duo Kyle Coetzer (6) and Matthew Machan (0) in consecutive balls. Spinner Nadeem Ahmed cleaned up the lower order, taking 4-26 off his 8.1 overs. Callum McLeod played a lone hand for the Scots, making 58 off 78 balls.