Scotland suffered a disastrous start to their Twenty20 World Cup qualifying campaign yesterday when they were comprehensively outplayed by unfancied Bermuda.
Pete Steindl’s men went into their opening group match at the Sharjah Stadium in the United Arab Emirates as strong favourites.
But impressive warm-up wins against United States and Namibia counted for nothing when the competitive action began and the Scots now find themselves playing catch-up.
Chasing 150 for victory, the Scots were stunned in the first over when in-form Calum MacLeod was needlessly run out before he had faced a ball.
Matt Machan also went cheaply as Scotland slumped to eight for two after just seven balls of their reply.
Richie Berrington and skipper Kyle Coetzer raised hopes of a recovery with a partnership of 57 in eight overs. Berrington had hit two 6s and a 4 in his 29 – partially atoning for his part in MacLeod’s demise – before being bowled by Derrick Brangman.
Rob Taylor took up the attack with a rapid 26 but when he and Coetzer departed with the score on 109 it sparked a dreadful collapse that saw Scotland lose their last seven wickets for just 22 runs.
Coetzer top-scored with 37 though the skipper, aware of the need to increase his strike-rate, perished when he danced down the track to Brangman and was stumped.
In the end, the Scots fell 18 runs short to give their rivals a comfortable win.
Scotland coach Pete Steindl said: “The result is a big disappointment. We have to move on from this, regroup and keep on believing in what we are trying to do.”