Scotland fall short in round one against auld enemy as England defeat ends 2026 T20 Cricket World Cup dream
It’s not a great omen for the nation ahead of this afternoon’s Calcutta Cup at Murrayfield.
On a day where Six Nations rugby is the talk of the town, Scotland lost by five wickets against a star-studded England side in today’s ‘other’ auld enemy clash, which ironically took place in Calcutta.
It was a win or bust fixture for Richie Berrington and co, who had previously beaten Italy and narrowly lost to West Indies in their World Cup Group Stage matches. Despite the defeat, Owen Dawkins’ men gave a good account of themselves, especially considering they were called into the tournament late, after Bangladesh refused to play in India.
In front of 40,000 fans at the iconic Eden Gardens, the Scots got off to a great start with the bat, but as their innings wore on struggled to cope with England’s spin bowlers. After the interval, some key early wickets including England captain Harry Brook gave Scotland a chance of taking the match to the wire, but a superb knock from Tom Banton was eventually their undoing.
Scotland vs England match summary
Brook won the toss and elected to bowl on a good wicket, with the added insurance of knowing his team have proved they’re capable of chasing any given target. It wasn’t a great start for the Scots with the early wickets of George Munsey and Brandon McMullen falling, however captain Berrington and Tom Bruce developed a strong partnership midway through the innings to get some valuable runs on the board. Despite this, when the duo were toppled in quick succession, England spinners Adil Rashid and Liam Dawson chased out the tail.
A total of 152 was defendable on a good bowling wicket and when England openers Phil Salt and Jos Buttler were dismissed for two and three respectively it really was game on. This was before Jacob Bethell and Banton came onto the scene to put England back on track. Brook had been criticised for his gung-ho approach to batting during the Ashes but his style is tailor made for the shorter formats of the game, so it was a good effort from the Scots to restrict him to just four runs.
A few more England wickets fell but the one constant was Banton, who was hitting boundaries for fun. Experienced Scotland bowler Mark Watt was the unfortunate soul the English batsman decided to attack, hitting him for 22 in his first over. Despite an impressive display from Brad Wheal with the ball, Scotland ultimately fell short with Will Jacks hitting the winning runs after 18.2 overs.
‘We were a few runs short’ - Berrington reflects on England clash
The defeat is somewhat of a double-whammy for the Scots, who not only lost their place in the competition but also the bragging rights over the auld enemy, after beating them in the last completed match between the sides in 2018. After the match, Berrington wasn’t too disheartened after a gutsy performance and took the opportunity to thank India for their hospitality.
He told the BBC: "I thought it was a really good surface to bat on. We fought back really well after losing early wickets but we needed one of us to go on. I think we knew spin would be key through the middle phase. Our execution was off today but we know we have the players who can do that.
"We were a few runs short but we had the belief which is probably why this one hurts quite a lot. If we can execute our best skills we can put teams under pressure. We've loved our time here, great to have three games here. We've had a lot of support and it was a great atmosphere to finish things off.”