Photo Credit: Cricket Scotland
Scotland’s U19 men made a strong start to their ICC Men’s U19 World Cup qualifying campaign as they beat Jersey by 8 wickets in their opening match at Desert Springs in Spain.
Jersey won the toss and elected to bat, but Scotland showed their intent from the start as Sean Fischer-Keogh took the wicket of James Smith with the first ball of the match. Jersey were bowled out for just 107 with Fischer-Keogh, Charlie Peet and Jamie Cairns all taking two wickets while Oliver Davidson topping the bowling figures with 3 for 21 off 10 overs.
Scotland raced to their target of 108 in just 21 overs, led by Gabriel Gallman-Findlay who finished the day on 59no.
Scotland Lead Coach Gordon Drummond was delighted with the side’s performance: “Looking at yesterday’s game conditions between Ireland and the Netherlands we could see things were a bit more spin friendly, hence the reason we went with an extra spinner today.
“We would probably have chosen to bat first in the conditions, but the guys are confident chasing as well. We bowled well and put them under pressure taking a couple of early wickets. I think we can improve on the consistency of where we bowled, but we kept them under pressure and got wickets at the right time in clusters. It was also a really good performance in the field and the catching was exemplary.
“It was tricky to come in to bat before the lunch break but I’m happy with the way we approached it. The run rate was good and we got to a decent total before lunch. Gabriel Gallman-Findlay was outstanding with the bat today and really committed to the shots.
“Jersey are a good side and it could have been a tricky chase and I think we negotiated that really well.”
The Scots will play the Netherlands tomorrow (Tuesday) and Ireland on Thursday in the group stages with the top two teams progressing to the final. Only the overall winner of the tournament goes directly to the ICC Under-19s World Cup in 2022.
“Back to back matches are tough,” said Drummond, “We firmly believe we’ve got the team to beat them though.”
Name of Author: Cricket Scotland
Cricket Scotland, formerly the Scottish Cricket Union, is the governing body for cricket in Scotland, based at the National Cricket Academy in Edinburgh. Established in 1908 and restructured in 2001, it became an ICC Associate Member in 1994. The organization includes three sub-associations: the East of Scotland Cricket Association, Western District Cricket Union, and Aberdeenshire Cricket Association.
