Scotland delivered brilliantly with the ball and their openers have stayed unbeaten at the end of opening day’s play of their ICC Intercontinental Cup match against Ireland at Dubai.
Scotland managed to bowl out Ireland for 251 in 81 overs and reached 37/0 in the 10 overs they batted for in their 1st innings. Mark Watt (3/60), Stuart Whittingham (3/23) & Chris Sole (3/79) bowled impeccable line and lengths to pick up Irish wickets at regular intervals.
After William Porterfield (28 off 38) and Andrew Balbirnie (36 off 59) tried to steady the innings at the start of the day, Kevin O’Brien’s knock of 78 n.o off 97 deliveries took Ireland to their final score. Other batsmen got starts but could not convert them to bigger scores. Debutante Mitchell Rao also picked up a solitary wicket on his first-class debut.
Scotland openers, George Munsey (23 n.o off 28) and Kyle Coetzer (13 n.o off 32) managed to take Scotland to 37 for no loss, negotiating the 10 overs at the end of day’s play. Both openers will be hoping for a good start on day 2 as Scotland look to erase the deficit of 214 runs and take a 1st innings lead.
