Blain guides Scotland to victory

Triangular series, Mombasa: Scotland 209-8 beat Canada 208 by two wickets

Scorecard

Blain is not normally renowned for his batting prowess

Tail-ender John Blain was Scotland's unlikely batting hero as they beat Canada by two wickets in their final game of the tri-series in Kenya.

Majid Haq (45) and Ryan Watson (39) got Scotland off to a good start but the result was in doubt when Gavin Hamilton went for 44 to leave them on 163-7

But Blain, batting at number nine, hit an unbeaten 30 to see them home on 209-8 with 16 balls to spare.

He earlier claimed 3-46 in Canada's 208 all out, with Craig Wright taking 4-29.

It was something of an achievement for both sides to put 11 players onto the field, with both camps having been affected by a stomach bug - so bad was it for Canada that they had to cancel their previous game against hosts Kenya.

It was Scotland who looked the stronger after Paul Hoffmann had Abdool Samad (21) lbw and skipper Wright bowled opposite number John Davison (39) following an opening stand of 64.

Wright's excellent spell and two wickets from slow left-armer Glenn Rogers hastened Canada's decline to 120-6, but Don Maxwell (29) and Sunil Dhaniram (46) enabled their side to post a respectable total by adding 70 with some aggressive strokeplay.

The last four wickets went down for 16, however, and they were all out in the 45th over when Wright denied Dhaniram a half century by having him caught by Fraser Watts.

Scotland made a poor start in reply when Navdeep Poonia departed for two, but Watson and Haq put things back on an even keel before Haq was decived by Davison's off-spin.

Davison also send back Watts cheaply in a tidy spell of 2-31 and 40-year-old seamer Anderson Cummins, who once played Test cricket for West Indies, weighed in with the catch to dismiss Watson and two wickets of his own.

All the time Hamilton was there, the Scots were ahead of the game but his 103-minute innings came to an end when he was caught by Davison off Dhaniram.

Wright and Blain managed to add 20 for the eighth wicket before Wright was bowled for 14 by Cummins, throwing the outcome back into the balance.

But Blain showed no sign of nerves as he collected a six and four boundaries to send Scotland into the forthcoming ICC World League in positive mood.