SCOTLAND's cricketers last night claimed a morale-boosting win with victory over the USA in Dubai.
Following mixed results on their tour of Sri Lanka, the Scots stepped-up their preparations for the WT20 qualifiers with a comfortable seven-wicket success against a side tipped to be one of the dark horses of the tournament.
Chasing the USA's 133-7, Calum MacLeod led the way with a top score of 46.
The Uddingston player shared in stands of 31 with Richie Berrington and 49 with Matt Machan.
MacLeod was eventually bowled by Neil McGarrell for 46 at a better than a run-a-ball, hitting five boundaries.
His departure paved the way for skipper Kyle Coetzer to finish the job with a hard-hitting 35no.
Northants star Coetzer, who faced just 24 balls, hit the only six of the innings and scored the winning runs with his third boundary.
Earlier, Yorkshire's Neil Wardlaw was the pick of the bowlers with 3-25. His victims included USA opener Steven Taylor whose 55 was the highest score of the match.
Coetzer said: "It was a good professional performance against tricky opponents.
"Calum played another really good knock and that helped us get home with more than an over to spare.
"But everyone did their jobs. We bowled well as a unit and could have got them out for about 115 if a couple of catches had gone to hand.
"Overall I'm really happy with how we went about things today."
The Scots complete their preparations when they face Namibia today (Wed) before opening their qualifying campaign against Bermuda on Friday.
| Toss won by | Scotland XI |
| Umpires | M Hawthorne - Sasika Prasad |
| Home Side | Scotland XI |
| Batsman | Fieldsman | Bowler | Runs | Min | Bls | 4s | 6s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SR Taylor+ | c D Murphy | b I Wardlaw | 55 | 0 | 51 | 4 | 3 |
| AL Dodson | c MW Macham | b NM Carter | 16 | 0 | 13 | 3 | 0 |
| OM Baker | lbw | b RM Haq | 6 | 0 | 12 | 0 | 0 |
| TP Allen | b SM Sharif | 8 | 0 | 12 | 0 | 0 | |
| EH Hutchison | lbw | b RM Haq | 2 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 |
| A Sanford | not out | 28 | 0 | 21 | 1 | 1 | |
| JH Patel | c CS Macleod | b I Wardlaw | 4 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 0 |
| NC McGarrell* | b I Wardlaw | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | |
| K Ganesh | not out | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Muhammad Ghous | dnb | - | |||||
| Danial Ahmed | dnb | - | |||||
| extras | (b0 lb4 w8 nb1) | 13 | |||||
| TOTAL | 7 wickets for | 133 |
| FOW |
|---|
| 1-20(AL Dodson) 2-37(OM Baker) 3-71(TP Allen) 4-76(EH Hutchison) 5-103(SR Taylor) |
| 6-118(JH Patel) 7-123(NC McGarrell) |
| Bowler | O | M | R | W | wd | nb |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| I Wardlaw | 4 | 0 | 25 | 3 | 1 | - |
| NM Carter | 4 | 0 | 23 | 1 | 5 | - |
| SM Sharif | 4 | 0 | 18 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| RM Haq | 4 | 0 | 30 | 2 | - | - |
| RML Taylor | 2 | 0 | 16 | 0 | - | - |
| G Goudie | 2 | 0 | 17 | 0 | 1 | - |
| Batsman | Fieldsman | Bowler | Runs | Min | Bls | 4s | 6s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RD Berrington | b TP Allen | 10 | 0 | 16 | 1 | 0 | |
| CS Macleod | b NC McGarrell | 46 | 0 | 43 | 5 | 0 | |
| MW Macham | b Danial Ahmed | 16 | 0 | 20 | 1 | 0 | |
| KJ Coetzer* | not out | 35 | 0 | 24 | 3 | 1 | |
| RML Taylor | not out | 11 | 0 | 10 | 2 | 0 | |
| SM Sharif | dnb | - | |||||
| RM Haq | dnb | - | |||||
| G Goudie | dnb | - | |||||
| NM Carter | dnb | - | |||||
| D Murphy+ | dnb | - | |||||
| I Wardlaw | dnb | - | |||||
| extras | (b0 lb6 w10 nb0) | 16 | |||||
| TOTAL | 3 wickets for | 134 |
| FOW |
|---|
| 1-31(RD Berrington) 2-80(MW Macham) 3-94(CS Macleod) |
| Bowler | O | M | R | W | wd | nb |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EH Hutchison | 2 | 0 | 13 | 0 | 2 | - |
| A Sanford | 2 | 0 | 9 | 0 | 2 | - |
| K Ganesh | 2 | 0 | 18 | 0 | 5 | - |
| TP Allen | 3 | 0 | 10 | 1 | 1 | - |
| Muhammad Ghous | 1 | 0 | 9 | 0 | - | - |
| Danial Ahmed | 4 | 0 | 31 | 1 | - | - |
| NC McGarrell | 4 | 0 | 26 | 1 | - | - |
| Imran Awan | .5 | 0 | 12 | 0 | - | - |