SCOTLAND's World Cup dream died in the desert last night when the Netherlands carved out a three-wicket win at the Global Cricket Academy in Dubai.
A Saltires side, creaking at the seams after an injury blighted qualifying campaign, went down fighting after Calum MacLeod's brilliant half-century helped them to post 166 for six.
The Scottish batsmen were unable to press the accelerator at the end of their innings, though, while the bowlers, having built pressure, released it during a couple of expensive overs.
It was Tom Cooper, the former Forfarshire batsman and one of eight Dutch players born outside the Netherlands, whose well-paced 60 extinguished Scotland's hopes of travelling to the T20 World Cup in Sri Lanka later this year.
While he refused to make excuses for his team's exit, coach Pete Steindl did point out that the loss of his two frontline seam bowlers had proved costly. Neither, Gordon Goudie nor Safy Sharif survived an arduous schedule and the former's replacement, Moneeb Iqbal, was short of top-flight action as a toll of 33 runs from his two overs proved.
Steindl admitted: "At the end of the day, we've come up short and the guys are gutted. To be honest, we have run out of bowlers and that has made our task even harder. It hurt us not having Gordon and it hurt us not having Safy, but the guys tried extremely hard and we would still have backed ourselves to get through to the World Cup."
The day started well for the Saltires when MacLeod and Richie Berrington came out firing. They reached 59-0 in the seventh over before Berrington was first to go for a 25-ball 37 but another half-century stand between MacLeod and Mommsen kept the momentum going.
Mommsen hit a rapid 26 while MacLeod's 57 came from just 42 balls and included five 4s and two 6s. The Scots then lost their way, though, hitting just two boundaries in the final six overs.
The Dutch were given a solid start by the South African Stephan Myburgh and his Australian colleague Michael Swart, who put on 31 for the first wicket.
The Scottish bowlers made a game of it, though, Berrington making the breakthrough to remove Swart before Majid Haq claimed two quick wickets. Haq, Scotland's most consistent bowler, first deceived the Worcestershire batsman Alex Kervezee in the flight then bowled Myburgh for a 24-ball 36. He claimed a third wicket when Mudassar Bukhari charged down the wicket and was stumped by Craig Wallace.
Berrington took a return catch to remove big-hitting Peter Borren while captain Gordon Drummond kept Scottish hopes alive by dismissing Wesley Barresi and Cooper in the space of four balls as the game went to the final over.
Cooper had done the damage, though, only departing with his adopted country within touching distance of victory and a second play-off against Ireland.
In fine touch after a successful season with South Australia, he seized the initiative by smashing three 6s in a row off Iqbal. He hit one more, as well as four boundaries, in his punishing 32-ball knock.
Steindl added: "We didn't score heavily enough at the end of our innings. Having said that, we exerted pressure with the ball and one guy has taken it away from us."
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