New faces expected in Saltires line-up to face Knight Riders next month

Wednesday 26 September 2012

Scotland's cricketers are set for their toughest T20 test yet against the star-studded Kolkata Knight Riders in a one-off match at the start of the Saltires' South African tour next month.

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William Dick

The Knight Riders, featuring international T20 specialists such as Jacques Kallis, Brendon McCullum and Gautham Gambhir will be in Johannesburg to defend their Champions League crown, and one of their warm-up matches will be against a new-look Saltires side featuring a number of English-born recruits.

As many as four new faces are expected to be named in the squad this morning, including the young Sussex batsman Matt Machan and the Leicestershire all-rounder Rob Taylor. The fast bowler Iain Wardlaw will miss out, though, because he has Champions League commitments with Yorkshire.The county-based players qualify through the ICC's new eligibility rules.Scotland have moved above Afghanistan to 14th in the latest ICC world rankings after winning nine of their 14 one-day internationals against their fellow Associate countries during the period from August 2009-August 2012. Their win rate of 64% was 9% higher than that achieved by the much-vaunted Afghans.The Saltires will have to defeat a Test-playing country, though, before they can join Ireland, Netherlands and Kenya on the Reliance ICC ODI Championship table.n Imran Nazir ensured that Pakistan became the final team to qualify for the ICC World Twenty20 Super Eights yesterday with an eight-wicket win over Bangladesh.Pakistan could afford to be defeated by 35 runs or fewer to make it through in the last Group D match at Pallekele.There were perhaps some doubts when Bangladesh piled up 175 for six, and Pakistan, therefore, had to make a minimum of 140 to progress on run rate, even in defeat, but Nazir (72) made a nonsense of those concerns, with the fastest half-century in this tournament, from just 25 balls.Bangladesh, without a win against Pakistan in any format since their surprise 1999 World Cup victory, appeared to have been given a chance by Shakib Al Hasan's boundary-laden 84.On a batsman's pitch, though, their attempted defence of a useful total began poorly as Abul Hasan dropped Nazir at mid-on off Shafiul Islam when the opener had just one run to his name in the second over. It proved to be costly as Nazir went on to bank nine 4s and three 6s.Captain Mohammad Hafeez batted in his first-wicket partner's slipstream in a stand of 124, before both fell in the same over from Hasan. Pakistan still completed their task with eight balls to spare.Shakib had earlier hit 11 4s and two 6s from just 54 balls and shared a stand of 68 for the third wicket with Mushfiqur Rahim before departing only in the 20th over to Yasir Arafat, who took three for 25.

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New faces expected in Saltires line-up to face Knight Riders next month

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