IT ended in thrilling fashion as Scotland sealed victory with two lusty blows from the final deliveries of their clash with Papua New Guinea in Abu Dhabi yesterday.

Sadly, though, the heroics of Matty Cross provided the dubious consolation of seventh place in the 16-team ICC WorldT20 qualifier.

The damage had, of course, been done twenty-four hours earlier when the Scots came a poor second in their make-or-break clash with the Netherlands, thus missing out on a place at next year's global event in Bangladesh.

Nevertheless, Kyle Coetzer's men showed commendable resilience to recover so quickly from Thursday's disappointment and the skipper admitted: "It was tough picking ourselves up after the events of yesterday but we did it well.

"The guys got the job done and it's good to end with a win."

Chasing 144 for victory, the Scots suffered a disastrous start when they slumped to 31-3 after six overs, Calum MacLeod, Matt Machan and Michael Leask having all gone cheaply.

However, Coetzer and Richie Berrington added 90 for the fourth wicket to keep them in touch.

Boundaries were hard to come by on a slowish wicket but the Scottish duo ran well between the wickets to ensure the board ticked along.

The required rate had risen to 10-an over when Coetzer fell for 35 before Berrington opened his shoulders to smack three maximums in his unbeaten 70.

Scotland still needed 13 from the final over bowled by Andrew Hicks and it looked as if the tournament would end in disappointment when Rob Taylor holed out off the second delivery.

With Berrington losing the strike, it was left to Cross, the Aberdeenshire and Notts wicket-keeper/batsman, to face the final two deliveries with eight runs still required.

The youngster rose to the occasion in spectacular fashion, clubbing the penultimate ball for six and following up with the boundary that gave Scotland victory by five wickets.

Earlier Majid Haq was again the best Scottish bowler with 3-25 while Neil Carter claimed 2-19 as PNG made 143-5.

Coetzer added: "Richie and I thought we had to take the game deep and we managed to keep on top of the run-rate after the early wickets.

"Credit to Crossy who came in and took us home with the last ball of the game."

The Scots fly back to Glasgow today (Sat) and will almost immediately begin their preparations for the 50-over World Cup qualifier which takes place in New Zealand in January and which will hopefully have a happier conclusion.

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