West Indies scraped into next year’s ICC World Cup in England, as heavy rain coupled with a controversial umpire’s decision helped them beat Scotland by five runs under the Duckworth-Lewis system in the final of the Super Six march of the ICC World Cup Qualifiers on Wednesday at the Harare Sports Club in Zimbabwe.
Faced with winning their final must-win match, West Indies were bundled out for a paltry 198 off their 50 overs.
Opener Evin Lewis top-scored with 66 and veteran Marlon Samuel struck but the regional team collapsed after being 123 for 2 and lost their last eight wickets for 75 runs. Hard-hitting opener Chris Gayle failed with the bat again and was out for a first ball duck.
New-ball opener Sayyaan Sharif (3-27) and Brad Wheal, both claimed three wickets apiece to wreck the Windies innings.
In reply, Scotland at one time were reeling at 25 for 3 in the seventh over before recovering as Richie Berrington who struck 55 and George Munsey (32) gave West Indies a scare as the game was still open when the rain came with Scotland on 125 for 5 in the 36th over, five runs below the DLS score of 130.
The controversial umpire decision was against Berrington who was given out LBW when it appeared that the ball was sliding down leg-side. The bowler was off-spinner Ashley Nurse.
