Scotland beaten again by Afghanistan despite fine century from Coetzer

Saturday 9 March 2013

A brilliant century from Kyle Coetzer proved in vain last night as Scotland's World Cup qualifying hopes were dealt a second blow by Afghanistan.

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Staff Writer

The Saltires went into this match at the Sharjah Stadium looking to avenge Wednesday's heavy defeat and stay ahead of their rivals in the bid for automatic qualification for the 2015 global event.

However, they were again the architects of their own downfall, firstly failing to build on Coetzer's heroics with the bat and then unable to contain the talented Afghan batsmen who reached their 260-run target with five wickets and eight balls to spare.

Gordon Drummond, the Scotland captain, could not hide his disappointment.He said: "We wanted to be more aggressive at the start of our innings and we managed that. We got ourselves into a good position but we had a bit of a stutter in the middle which prevented us getting about 280. In hindsight, 280 might well have been enough for us but if you'd have offered us the 260 we did get I'd have taken it."At half-time we knew they would come hard at us and Shahzad got them off to a great start. To be fair, we pegged them back quite well but we just couldn't get the wickets we needed."Drummond heaped praise on centurion Kyle Coetzer whose 133 proved in vain."That was the best innings I've ever seen from a Scottish batsman. He went through the gears brilliantly and the way he took on [Hamid] Hassan was fantastic."Having put themselves in with a chance, the Scots needed to make an early breakthrough to raise doubts in the Afghan ranks.Instead, Mo Shahzad came out with all guns blazing as his side raced to 37-0 in only four overs.Scotland's bowlers at least enjoyed intermittent success with Drummond taking a return catch to remove Wednesday's centurion Nawroz Mangal for 30 and David Murphy producing a smart stumping off Josh Davey to account for Asghar Stanikzai.When Iain Wardlaw had Rahmat Shah caught by Richie Berrington, Afghanistan still needed 100 for victory.However, their captain Mohammed Nabi (51) and Sami Shenwari (30 not out) guided them towards the target with a stand of 72 before Gulbodin Naib (21 not out) struck the winning boundaryThe defeat sees the Scots joined by Afghanistan in second place in the table from which two will qualify for the World Cup. They may now need to beat both Kenya and Ireland twice."We have to stay positive," Drummond added. "It's going to be really tight but things are still in our own hands. If we win our last four games we can go through and we are capable of doing that."

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Scotland beaten again by Afghanistan despite fine century from Coetzer

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