Scotland suffer three-wicket defeat after Namibia fightback in World Cricket League 2

Scotland suffered a three-wicket defeat in their latest World Cricket League 2 encounter following a strong fightback from Namibia.

The Scots set a total of 208 and their attack started encouragingly, restricting Namibia to 28 runs in their opening 10 overs and then 82 for five at the 20-over stage.

But the African side picked up the pace to reach 210 for seven with 36 balls to spare.

Scotland started the game in first place in the group following wins over hosts Namibia and Nepal in the opening two matches of their four-game series in Windhoek.

However, there was an early blow when former skipper Kyle Coetzer was dismissed lbw for a duck by Ruben Trumpelmann, who went on to take four wickets.

Brandon McMullen (56) and opener George Munsey (51) were the key men with the bat for Scotland, but nobody else claimed more than 20 runs in difficult conditions as wicket-keeper Zane Green caught five of the visiting batters, with the tourists bowled out in the final over.

McMullen continued to impress by bowling out Namibia’s opening batters for a total of 10 runs and then catching skipper Gerhard Erasmus, while Mark Watt took three wickets for 28 runs.

But Chris Sole was among the bowlers who failed to land a wicket from his 10 overs as Jan Nicol Loftie-Eaton (67) and Pikky Ya France (52) took the home side past their target with an unbeaten partnership of 99 runs.

Scotland remain top of the league and have five games in hand on second-placed Oman, but Namibia closed their deficit on the leaders to nine points with two games less played.

Shane Burger’s side face Nepal on Thursday in the final match of their trip.