Clarke onslaught sinks Scotland

Shirley Clarke on the attack on his way to 159* © The Nation

Despite setting an impressive total of 275, Scotland tumbled to defeat at the hands of University of West Indies at the 3W's Oval, in the first match of their pre-World Cup familiarisation tour to Barbados.

On a breezy morning with scattered clouds, Scotland captain Craig Wright won his first toss and elected to bat - to the surprise of the UWI skipper. A steady opening partnership between Gavin Hamilton (44) and Kyle Coetzer (31) was broken on 87 when the former fell lbw. . Ryan Watson, batting at No. 3, then anchored stands with Fraser Watts, Colin Smith, Darren Spink and Dougie Brown and was finally out caught at square leg for 92. A late flurry of wickets meant Scotland set a lower target than looked likely when Watson was going well, although not at his flamboyant best.

Scotland then made early inroads into the UWI batting lineup, with two wickets from Dougie Brown and a superb Kyle Coetzer run out with a direct throw, reducing the home side to 19 for 3. However, former Barbados player Shirley Clarke remained calm and soon started exerting a toll on Scotland's bowlers. Although wickets fell at 83, 110, 159 and 223, Shirley continued to flail a tiring Scottish attack and fielding mistakes started to creep in.

The portly Clarke reached his century off 162 balls and finished on an impressive 159 when he hit Paul Hoffman for four in the penultimate over to take the home side to 278 and victory. None of the Scotland bowlers were taken apart, but all went for around 5 to 5.5 an over. Although clearly rusty and obviously tiring in the hot afternoon sun, they stuck manfully to their task.