Scotland Beaten By West Indies In T20 World Cup Opener

Scotland began their T20 World Cup run pinch a 35-run conclusion by two-time champions West Indies astatine Eden Gardens, undone by Shimron Hetmyer's blistering half‑century and Romario Shepherd's five-wicket haul.

Having been drafted into nan tourney precocious following Bangladesh's boycott, nan Scots had their moments pinch nan shot and bat but yet grounded to lucifer nan value of their opponents, who were winners successful 2012 and 2016.

A fourth-place decorativeness astatine past summer's Europe Qualifier had looked to person costs Scotland a spot astatine nan 2026 edition, but handed a 2nd chance, they proved they were not retired of spot connected nan large stage.

Chasing 183, nan Scots were 37-3 successful nan sixth complete erstwhile skipper Richie Berrington and Tom Bruce came together successful nan mediate and concisely ignited hopes of an upset.

The brace added 78 for nan 4th wicket, pinch Berrington starring from nan beforehand pinch 42 from 24 balls but his departure pinch nan people astatine 115-4 stalled their momentum.

West Indies past each but sealed nan triumph arsenic Shepherd took 4 wickets successful nan 17th over, including a sensational hat-trick, to decorativeness pinch 5-20.

Opting to vessel first, Scotland restricted West Indies to 182‑5 - a full they would person gladly accepted going into nan last overs aft coming nether unit from nan sadistic hitting of Windies duo Hetmyer and Rovman Powell.

Making their sixth quality successful nan tournament, Scotland held their nerves done nan powerplay arsenic West Indies crawled to 33-0 earlier they struck doubly successful speedy succession done Michael Leask and debutant Oliver Davidson.

Off-spinner Leask made nan breakthrough successful nan ninth complete to disregard Windies skipper Shai Hope earlier Davidson, nan 21-year-old left-armer, accounted for Brandon King, who had settled successful good pinch a 30-ball 35, successful nan pursuing over.

West Indies recovered themselves 66-2 astatine nan halfway shape of their innings but immoderate explosive batting from Hetmyer swung nan momentum backmost successful their favour pinch Powell besides joining successful pinch 24 from 14 balls.

Hetmyer, meanwhile, raced to his half-century successful 22 balls and it needed a awesome drawback from Brandon McMullen astatine wide long-on to sent backmost nan batter successful nan penultimate complete aft a quickfire 64 from 36 balls.

But by then, nan Windies were good and genuinely successful command, and contempt immoderate tidy decease bowling from Brad Currie, who vanished pinch figures of 2‑23, they posted a full that proved retired of Scotland's reach.