Ireland stun Bangladesh; Munsey, Cross warm up with fifties in Scotland's win

An unbeaten 88 from Gareth Delany followed by a combined bowling effort helped Ireland stun Bangladesh in the warm-up match in Abu Dhabi with a 33-run win. Quicks Craig Young, Josh Little and Mark Adair combined to take seven wickets as Bangladesh were skittled out for 144.

Opting to bat first, Ireland were off to a good start before Nasum Ahmed struck to remove Paul Stirling, following which Delany joined captain Andy Balbirmie at the crease. Taskin Ahmed removed Balbirnie in the eighth over and George Dockrell was caught two overs later, but Delany kept going, bringing up his fifty off 33 balls. Ireland did not lose another wicket as Delany and Harry Tector put up a 99-run stand to take them to 177 for 3. Delany hit eight sixes and three fours in his 50-ball stay, while Tector brought up a run-a-ball 23.

Bangladesh lost three batters - Mohammad Naim, Liton Das, and Mushfiqur Rahim - within the first ten balls of the chase for single-digit scores. Soumya Sarkar and Nurul Hasan tried to resurrect the innings with contributions of 37 and 38 respectively, but they found no support at the other end during their stay. Bangladesh slumped from 82 for 4 to 144 all out as Adair and Little cleaned up the tail, leaving Taskin unbeaten on 14.

Attacking half-centuries from George Munsey (67 off 41) and Matthew Cross (57 off 33) helped Scotland kick off the T20 World Cup warm-ups with a 19-run win over Namibia at the ICC Academy in Dubai.

Put in to bat, Scotland put on a quick opening stand of 40 in 5.1 overs thanks to Munsey and captain Kyle Coetzer before Jan Frylink broke the stand and Scotland replied with a 73-run partnership between Munsey and Cross. Munsey struck eight fours and three sixes in all, and Cross seven fours and two sixes, to give Richie Berrington (25 off 21) and Calum MacLeod (18 off 7) the platform to put up 203 for 7.

Both teams were allowed to play 14 players per side, and Namibia used as many as nine bowlers but couldn't restrict Scotland.

Namibia lost their opener, Stephan Baard, on the first ball of the chase before Zane Green (34 off 26) and Craig Williams (80 off 51) got them going with a 70-run stand in eight overs. Green and captain Gerhard Erasmus fell in quick succession and Williams took them to the 16th over but the asking rate had gone over 17 when he fell at 133 for 4. David Wiese (31 off 17) and JJ Smit (26* off 15) struck a few late blows but they weren't enough.

Aqib Ilyas' 78 went in vain as Oman suffered a four-run defeat against Netherlands in the warm-up game in Dubai. Colin Ackermann's unbeaten 21-ball 37, and 43 and 40 from Stephan Myburgh and Ben Cooper respectively set up Netherlands' 165 for 4 before Timm van der Gugten defended ten in the final over.

After winning the toss, Oman sent in Netherlands but struggled to make early inroads. Myburgh and Max O'Dowd added 43 for the first wicket and after Zeeshan Maqsood bowled O'Dowd for a run-a-ball 21, Myburgh put on 45 with Cooper for the second wicket. After Myburgh was run out, Ackermann's three sixes and as many fours in his blitz at No. 4 took Netherlands to a formidable total.

In response, Oman lost Jatinder Singh for 1 in the second over. His opening partner, Ilyas, however, got them going with a counter-attacking knock that saw him score 60 of his 78 runs in boundaries, with the help of six sixes and as many fours. He strung a 99-run stand for the third wicket with Mohammad Nadeem, who was one of the three run-out victims for Oman.

A 35-run seventh-wicket partnership between Sandeep Goud (19 off 9) and Naseem Khushi (14* off 17) put Oman in sight of victory, with Goud clobbering two sixes off van der Gugten in the 17th over to bring the equation down to 20 required from 18 balls. But a four-run 18th over from Logan van Beek, followed by Goud's dismissal early in the 19th, ended Oman's fight.