Scotland have been knocked out of the T20 World Cup with a five-wicket defeat to Zimbabwe seeing their opponents claim the final Super 12 spot.
Scotland’s second straight defeat, following on from Wednesday’s loss to Ireland, left them third in Group B, with Zimbabwe finishing top and moving through to the second round.
Richie Berrington’s team were restricted to 132-6 by Zimbabwe, who proceeded to knock those runs off with nine balls to spare after recovering from 7-2 in the second over of the chase thanks to skipper Craig Ervine (58 off 54) and Sikandar Raza (40 off 23).
Raza departed with 27 runs required from 31 deliveries and Ervine then holed out at the end of the 17th over with 14 runs needed to give Scotland hope but Milton Shumba and Ryan Burl then took Zimbabwe home as Burl muscled Safyaan Sharif for a boundary over mid-on in the penultimate over.
Scotland had thumped West Indies in their opening fixture but successive losses ended their hopes of making it to the second round for the second year in a row.
Zimbabwe can now look forward to fixtures against the likes of India, Pakistan and South Africa after reaching the Super 12s for the first time in their history.
More to follow…