'Minnows' Scotland hunt down Lankan lions by 7 wickets

Photo: ICC New Delhi: The main scoreboard of the revamped County Cricket Ground at Beckenham, England showed Sri Lanka: 287 all out and Scotland: 291/3 in 42.5 overs. It took a moment to sink in, and when it did it was nothing short of a miracle. Scotland had actually beaten giants of cricket Sri Lanka by 7 wickets with 43 balls still to play. This was Scotland’s first major victory over a full-time member and in what style. A double century opening partnership with both the openers crossing the three figure mark while chasing a stiff target followed by some watchful batting by the middle order to reach home in canter. But before the impressive show with the willow, the bowling did a commendable job to restrict a batting line-up comprising of Angelo Mathews, Dinesh Chandimal, Kusal Perera and Kusal Mendis to 287, particularly when two of them went past half-centuries. Stuart Wittingham and Alasdiar Evans picked up three wickets a piece. Chandimal top scored with 79 for Sri Lanka. At the half way mark the Lankan camp may not have been ecstatic but they certainly were confident of closing the match before Scotland could even get within touching distance. Scotland’s openers Matthew Cross and Kyle Coetzer had different ideas. They put on a 201-run opening stand before Coetzer was finally out after a stroke-filled 118 off just 84 balls. Sri Lanka did a strike a couple of times more but it was not enough to dent the confidence of the so called minnows. Cross was solid as ever. He remained unbeaten on 101 with Con de Lange (19*) to make light work of the target. The loss would not do any good to Sri Lanka’s Champions Trophy preparations. The Asian giants will again face Scotland on Wednesday.