Kathryn Bryce leads by example as Scotland get off to flying start

Scotland captain Kathryn Bryce. Picture: Donald MacLeod

The Scots are hosting the event until next Saturday, with eight teams battling it out for two spots at the showpiece event in Australia next year.

As well as the hosts and their opponents yesterday, Bangladesh, Ireland, Papua New Guinea, Thailand, the Netherlands and Namibia are in the mix. The games are being played at Forfarshire’s ground and at Arbroath’s Lochlands ground.

With heavy overnight and morning rain in and around Dundee, Scotland’s opener against the USA looked in doubt.

The scheduled 2pm start time came and went, but the groundstaff did wonders and by 4.45pm the ground was playable and the teams would end up meeting in a seven-over-a-side clash.

Scotland batted first and, with the Bryce sisters Sarah and Kathryn at the crease, they got off to a flyer. After younger sister Sarah hit two 4s early on and made 12 runs from just ten balls, she was out in the fourth over with the score on 29.

Kathryn, fresh from appearing for Loughborough Lightning down south, kept things going and in the end she made a well-constructed 29 not out from 20 balls. That total included four 4s.

As well as the sisters’ contributions, eight from Becky Glen, four from Ruth Willis and one not out from the experienced Lorna Jack took the Scots to 60-3 from their allotted seven overs. Rachel Scholes and Kathryn Bryce then opened the bowling for the home side in the USA reply and set the tone. Scholes took 1-5 from her one over, while Bryce cemented her player of the match award with 2-6 from two overs.

Katherine Fraser, who is just 14, then showed her potential by taking 1-8 from two overs coming on as first-change bowler. With Abtaha Maqsood taking 1-5 and Katie McGill only going for six runs from her over, the USA were restricted to 30-5 from their seven overs as the hosts won by 30 runs.

They will look to keep up that momentum today when they play PNG at 10am in Arbroath.