SCOTLAND were in the pink last night after ending their long wait for a World Cup win.
In a match interrupted by rain, there was no dampening the delight of the Scottish players as they celebrated a famous T20 victory over Hong Kong in Nagpur – their first win at a global tournament in twenty-one attempts.
Chasing a revised target of 76 from ten overs after bowling and fielding superbly to restrict Hong Kong to 127-7, Preston Mommsen’s men surged home with eight wickets and two overs to spare.
Kyle Coetzer led the way with an unbeaten 20 after George Munsey had hammered four boundaries in a rapid 19.
Matthew Cross then hoisted a huge six over deep mid-wicket as Scotland reached the halfway stage on 42-1.
Cross repeated the dose to help his side galloped well ahead of the required rate only to pick out a fielder in the deep to depart for a 14-ball 22.
But Coetzer guided the side closer to an historic triumph before Matt Machan sealed it with a six over long-on.
Man-of-the-match Machan, who claimed two wickets in addition to his 15no, said: “This is a great day for Scottish cricket.
“We’ve finally got a monkey off our back after a long wait and the boys are delighted.
“We should probably have got a couple of wins at the 50-over World Cup last year but let ourselves down so it’s brilliant to get the win.
“We were happy to restrict them to 120-odd but chasing a D/L target can be difficult so it was great to get it done with two overs to spare.
“I’m happy to be man-of-the-match but the win is much more important.”
Earlier Scotland, sporting a new pink kit, never looked back from the moment young Durham paceman Gavin Main struck with his first delivery to remove Ryan Campbell for a duck.
But it was the spinners, led by the impressive Mark Watt, who did the bulk of the damage.
Watt and fellow left-armer Con de Lange had one wicket apiece while Machan claimed 2-26 with his off-spinners.
Only Mark Chapman dug-in for Hong Kong with a battling 40 though consecutive sixes from Nizakat Khan helped hoist the tally to 127-7.