SCO vs AUS 2024, SCOT vs AUS 1st T20I Match Report, 4 September 2024

Australia 156 for 3 (head 80) beat Scotland 154 for 9 (Abbott 3-39) with seven wickets

The home side came out of the blocks with good intentions under the leadership of George Munsey and were promising despite the wickets they lost in their attempt to maintain a high early run rate. However, after being 101 for 3 in the 12th over, they lost 6 for 44, with the changes of pace from the Australian quicks on a slightly two-tiered surface proving effective, along with two wickets from Adam Zampa.

Heads Attack (and some Marsh)

With so much discussion about him this year, it was easy to forget that Fraser-McGurk was making his T20I debut. But he failed to make an impression in his first innings when faced with the somewhat unexpected sight of Brandon McMullen's medium pace with the new ball. Attempting to bowl his third delivery, he bowled the ball wide to midwicket, where Charlie Cassell took a superbly scored catch.

But any hopes of Australia's failure were dashed in a flurry of boundaries. Head, who was the MLC player of the tournament in July, took three fours from Brad Wheal's first over and giving McMullen a second over did not pay off as it cost 20. But Jack Jarvis was spared the real carnage in the fifth innings when he was hit by Marsh for three sixes for 30. Scotland's bowlers had no answer and several balls went into the trees.

With the first ball of the sixth over, Head scored a fifty off 17 balls, equalling Marcus Stoinis' record as the fastest Australian player in T20Is during a run of 14 consecutive deliveries that were either fours or sixes.

Munsey's power play promise

Scottish opener George Munsey was responsible for the early attacks on the boundary, with repeated whippings down the leg side ensuring that Australia were under pressure with the ball in the powerplay, with McMullen also doing his part.

In the fifth over, Munsey dispatched consecutive throws from Riley Meredith, playing his first T20I since 2021, for six and followed up with another boundary as 18 fell from it. Munsey brought up Scotland's fifty in the next over but then fell victim to a superb catch from Josh Inglis, who dived to his left and caught a thick outside edge.

Scotland's decline

Scotland's progress was further compromised when McMullen was taken to defensive cover shortly after the fielding restrictions ended. There were signs that captain Richie Berrington was slowly coming into the game, but his dismissal, caught at long-off against Zampa, proved to be the turning point in the innings. From then on, Scotland struggled to regain momentum. Successive overs from Stoinis and Cameron Green yielded just four runs each, while the two all-rounders' combined four overs cost just 22 runs.

Meredith, Xavier Bartlett and Sean Abbott finished the innings strongly, only a pair of fine sixes from Jack Jarvis and Mark Watt could do much to counter this.

Watts long ball

While most of the attention in the chase was on Head, Marsh made 39 off 11 balls before coming on to Watt's first delivery as the left-handed spinner was forced back outside the fielding restrictions when he perhaps could have been used earlier.