Scotland have crashed out of the T20 World Cup after a heavy five-wicket defeat by Zimbabwe in Hobart.
The Scots, who beat the West Indies on Monday, were effectively in a knockout situation, but could only reach 132-6 in the face of some clever bowling from Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe were 42-3 after eight overs when Shaun Williams was dismissed.
But Sikandar Raza scored 40 off 23 balls to add 64 runs with Craig Irwin, who scored 58 runs, as victory remained with nine balls to spare.
Zimbabwe have progressed to the T20 World Cup for the first time. By topping Group B, they advance to Group Two of the Super 12 where they will face India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, South Africa and the Netherlands.
For Scotland, the defeat meant they failed to emulate their performance of a year ago, when they reached the Super 12 at the last World Cup in the United Arab Emirates.
Ireland also top Group B, having beaten the West Indies by nine wickets on Friday.
Sad end for Scotland
It’s a cruel end for the Scots, who were brilliant in beating the West Indies and were the better side for most of the match against Ireland, only to be stunned by a late Irish fightback.
He set up that winning all-match, and after winning the toss and accepting theoretically better batting conditions, Scotland were stifled by Zimbabwe’s bowling.
Although George Muncy held things together with 54 runs, the fact that he took 51 balls for his runs was emblematic of a Scotland innings that never took off.
He failed to hit a six and could only hit four fours after the second delivery of the seventh over – one of them a free hit and another leg bye.
Zimbabwe’s new ball duo Tendai Chitara and Richard Ngarawa were outstanding, while spinners Raza and Williams bowled together for a tight spell.
After the fall of Williams’ wicket, Scotland got a chance, and Birkin Raza reversed the momentum with the help of three fours and two sixes.
Glimpse of former glory for Zimbabwe
Political and financial problems have left Zimbabwe a shadow of a side that regularly competed with cricket’s strongest nations during its heyday in the 1990s.
He was recently suspended by the International Cricket Council in 2019, a ban that forced him to sit out last year’s tournament.
But they have now won nine of their last 11 T20 Internationals, along with the one-day international defeat against Australia in September.
They progress with wins over Ireland and Scotland. Crucially, skipper Irvine missed his defeat to the West Indies and it was his composure at the top of the order that guided the chase at Bellerive Oval.
Zimbabwe needed just 14 runs from three overs when Irvine finally made a mistake and miscued left-arm spinner Mark Watt at mid-off.
Milton Shamba and Ryan Brill refused to panic, Brill hitting Safyan Sharif at mid-off for the winning boundary.
