Scotland Team Update

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Beaten Scots vow to bounce back

All-rounder Dougie Brown tries to field off his own bowling against Sri Lanka
Scotland skipper Craig Wright backed his side to emerge stronger from the experience of losing to Sri Lanka in their opening World Cup warm-up game.
The Scots lost by 159 runs after being bowled out for just 135.

But Wright said: "You can't go out there and play against Muralitharan or Vaas and expect to succeed if you haven't faced them before.

"Next time some of the guys come up against them, they may have formulated some plans to be able to cope."


Interview: Scotland captain Craig Wright

Wright was content with his side's performance during Sri Lanka's innings and they will now look to build on that against Bangladesh on Thursday before taking on Australia on 14 March in their first game of the tournament proper.

"I thought the majority of our session in the field, we did pretty well. The fielding stood up pretty well to what is a vastly experienced and top-quality batting line-up.

"I thought we started really well. I thought new-ball bowlers John Blain and Paul Hoffmann set the tone really well, and then we got [Sanath] Jayasuriya out at the right time before things got out of hand."

Opposite number Mahela Jayawardene praised his team's "smart cricket" throughout the game.

"Coming into the World Cup and playing a side like Scotland, whom we haven't played before, we wanted to make sure we concentrated really well and focused on the game in hand - and we did that," he said.

"We had a 100-run stand, a couple of 50-run stands, the only thing we would have liked is one of the guys batting through the innings and getting 100."

WE can still get better and will be working on our intensity

Mahela Jayawardene

Jayasuriya (77) and Upul Tharanga (70) came closest and their opening partnership is likely to be crucial if Sri Lanka are to repeat their World Cup triumph of 1996.

"We wanted to assess how the wicket would play here. We felt it was a bit slow and if we had given away early wickets, it would have been difficult for us.

"Once the openers got used to the pitch, we got our target, we got 120 from 20 overs. We played some smart cricket and that's what we might have to do in this World Cup because the wickets will play differently in different places."

Jayawardene, meanwhile, defended the involvement of ICC associate member teams like Scotland in the competition.

"It's healthy for cricket....that's how we reached the standard we have now. From our point of view, that's how teams get exposure and get experience," he added.



Scotland v Sri Lanka
05-03-2007 at Barbados
Sri Lanka beat Scotland by 159 runs
Sri Lanka won the toss and decided to bat
Sri Lanka Innings
294 for 7 (50.0 overs)
Scotland Innings
135 all out (41.2 overs)


Sri Lanka Innings
Runs Balls 4s 6s
S T Jayasuriya c C M Wright b D R Brown 77 62 4 0
W U Tharanga c N S Poonia b J A R Blain 70 114 4 0
D P M D Jayawardene st C J O Smith b G A Rogers 8 11 0 0
K C Sangakkara c C M Wright b D R Brown 81 87 2 0
L P C Silva c C J O Smith b J A R Blain 1 5 0 0
T M Dilshan c N F I McCallum b R M Haq 6 6 0 0
M F Maharoof b P J C Hoffmann 28 14 2 2
R P Arnold not out 3 4 0 0
W P U J C Vaas not out 1 1 0 0
Extras 3nb 6w 2b 8lb 19
Total for 7 294 (50.0 ovs)

Bowler O M R W
P J C Hoffmann 10.0 1 41 1
J A R Blain 9.0 1 51 2
J D Nel 4.0 0 34 0
C M Wright 1.0 0 20 0
D R Brown 8.0 0 52 2
G A Rogers 10.0 0 45 1
R M Haq 8.0 0 41 1
Fall of wicket
117 S T Jayasuriya
129 D P M D Jayawardene
203 W U Tharanga
204 L P C Silva
282 M F Maharoof
292 K C Sangakkara


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Scotland Innings
Runs Balls 4s 6s
D F Watts lbw b W P U J C Vaas 13 24 1 0
R M Haq b W P U J C Vaas 14 35 0 0
N S Poonia lbw b S L Malinga 0 2 0 0
R R Watson c R P Arnold b M F Maharoof 17 29 0 0
G M Hamilton c R P Arnold b S T Jayasuriya 25 51 0 0
N F I McCallum c sub b M Muralitharan 13 20 0 0
D R Brown c L P C Silva b S T Jayasuriya 4 7 0 0
C J O Smith c and b T M Dilshan 19 0 0 0
C M Wright not out 5 11 0 0
J A R Blain c K C Sangakkara b C R D Fernando 0 0 0 0
G A Rogers c W U Tharanga b T M Dilshan 1 0 0 0
Extras 6nb 13w 5lb 24
Total all out 135 (41.2 ovs)

Bowler O M R W
W P U J C Vaas 6.0 0 23 2
S L Malinga 5.0 0 13 1
M F Maharoof 6.0 0 17 1
C R D Fernando 7.0 1 26 1
M Muralitharan 8.0 0 24 1
S T Jayasuriya 5.0 0 19 2
T M Dilshan 4.2 1 8 2
Fall of wicket
33 D F Watts
35 N S Poonia
41 R M Haq
67 R R Watson
98 N F I McCallum
102 G M Hamilton
108 D R Brown
130 J A R Blain
131 C J O Smith
135 G A Rogers


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Umpires: I L Howell, S J A Taufel
Scotland: D F Watts, R M Haq, N S Poonia, R R Watson, G M Hamilton, N F I McCallum, D R Brown, C J O Smith, C M Wright, G A Rogers, J A R Blain, P J C Hoffmann (sub), J D Nel
Sri Lanka: W U Tharanga, S T Jayasuriya, D P M D Jayawardene, K C Sangakkara, T M Dilshan, L P C Silva, M F Maharoof, R P Arnold, W P U J C Vaas, M Muralitharan, C R D Fernando, S L Malinga (sub)




Text and photo courtesy of www.bbc.co.uk

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