Hamilton pleased with Kenyan adventure

All-rounder Gavin Hamilton admitted Monday's defeat to Bermuda had "knocked the stuffing" out of Scotland but expressed his satisfaction at a job well done at the end of a long tour.

The Scots enjoyed wins in each of their opening four ICC World Cricket League Division 1 matches against Ireland, Canada, the Netherlands and Kenya before an understrength side suffered a surprise loss to previously winless Bermuda.

Peter Drinnen's team faced Roger Harper's Kenya again in Wednesday's final but were unable to repeat their heroics of three days earlier, going down by eight wickets at Gymkhana.

But, on the whole, Hamilton remains more than pleased with what the Scots have achieved on their travels, with their appearance in the final enough to secure a place at September's ICC Twenty20 World Championships as well as a substantial financial boost.

"I think when we lost to Bermuda on Monday it probably knocked a bit of the stuffing out," he said.

"It's been a long tour. We set out to qualify (for the final) and that's exactly what we wanted to do.

"Physically and mentally it's been a long day. We'd have loved to have won, but it's quite a relief to have qualified and to have finished the tour."

After opting to bat first on Wednesday, the Scots made 155 all out from 47 overs, with a middle-order collapse which saw Hamilton (nought), Neil McCallum (nought) and Colin Smith (one) proving crucial.

The Kenyans then strolled past their victory target with over 12 overs to spare.

As to what had gone wrong compared to Sunday, Hamilton said: "It's tough to pinpoint.

"I wouldn't say we were tired, we were physically probably a little bit drained but we weren't really at the races in any department and obviously when you lose five wickets for three runs you're always going to be (up against it).

"It was hard work, it's been a hard month. But it's not very often you go into a final and lose and still come out as a winner so that's the main thing."

Hamilton is now looking forward to having a fortnight off before focusing on the World Cup, and then after that the Twenty20 World Championships.

He said: "We're absolutely thrilled to bits. We've won some seriously close games that could have gone either way. It's nice, we're all very positive about going into two weeks off and start afresh again.

"(The Twenty20) is another incentive for the summer, another incentive to do well and get selected - it's just another carrot at the end to keep us going."

Ross Lyons added: "It'll be good fun at the Twenty20, getting through there was the main thing and getting the money as well.

"We couldn't really have had much better preparations (for the World Cup), with the heat we had in Mombasa."

On a personal level, 22-year-old Lyons was pleased with his innings of 23 not out batting at number 10, but a little disappointed with his bowling display (one for 44 from eight overs).

He said: "Batting-wise it's positive, getting a few runs under my belt to try to push myself up the order.

"It's one of these things when you're bowling and things don't go your way.

I bowled all right but they just kept on hitting the ball in the air to where there were no fielders."