Scotland take series with MacLeod's ton

Calum MacLeod struck his second hundred in three ODIs to lead Scotland to a 53-run win over Hong Kong in Edinburgh and take the series 1-0.

MacLeod made 102 off 107 balls and spearheaded a 116-run sixth-wicket partnership - a Scotland record - to help his side recover from a poor spell in the middle overs and post 266 for 7.

The hosts were eyeing a lot more after they won the toss and captain Kyle Coetzer produced a stroke-filled 48 from 42 balls. However, he was the second man out with the score on 63 and then watched his side slip to 144 for 5 in the 33rd over.

Disappointment kept piling up for Coetzer - had he scored one more run he would have become Scotland's highest run-getter in ODIs beating Gavin Hamilton's 1231 - until Craig Wallace, playing only his seventh ODI, chipped in with a run-a-ball 52 and gave the set batsman MacLeod the support he had been desperate for.

MacLeod's first fifty came off 67 balls, but the next one came off only 38. With him in charge, Scotland added 116 runs in their final 15 overs.

Hong Kong made a steady start to their chase. Their captain Babar Hayat and Nizakat Khan were even able to regain momentum after a spell of play when they lost two wickets for nine runs between the ninth and 13th overs. But once their 90-run stand - joint-highest for Hong Kong's third wicket - was broken, the middle-order collapsed. Scotland owed their bowling turnaround to the 22-year old Chris Sole. Playing his third ODI, he took 4 for 28 to bundle Hong Kong out for 213 after they had been 139 for 2.

"We got a good start with the run chase, Nizakat and I were playing nicely and then we collapsed," Hayat said after his highest ODI score of 56 went in vain. "They took two really good catches and saved a lot of singles and twos and we didn't do that. That was the big difference for me.

"We need to work on our fielding, in every game we gave away 20-30 runs and today it put us under a lot of pressure so that is something we have to work on."

"Overall we've played really well on this tour [of the UK] - we brought a lot of young guys and are missing key players. So it's a learning process for us and we will be a lot better for the experience."