George Munsey’s unbeaten 66 off 53 balls underpinned Scotland’s 160 for five after they lost the toss, with important cameos from Calum MacLeod (23 off 14) and Chris Greaves (16 not out off 11). The Windies raced to 53 for one but Evin Lewis was out from the penultimate ball of the powerplay, the start of a dramatic collapse that saw the 2012 and 2016 winners lose seven wickets for 26 runs in 45 deliveries.

It was the decisive moment in both sides’ opening Group B encounter in this first round, with Mark Watt, so often crucial to Scotland’s success, shining as the Windies were rolled for 118 in 18.3 overs. The slow left-armer was clever with his variations and finished with three for 12 from his four overs to boost Scotland’s hopes of qualifying for the Super 12s stage for a second successive year. Twelve months ago they overcame Bangladesh, Papua New Guinea and tournament co-hosts Oman to top their preliminary group, the first time they had gone past the first round at any World Cup event.

Scotland are daring to dream and skipper Berrington said: “To get a win like that at a World Cup – it’s pretty special to represent your country at a World Cup – it’s as big as it gets. The belief has always been there that we can put on that performance. It’s certainly a big win for us and one we’ll enjoy but we know there’s still plenty more to play for.

“Obviously, it's a special win for us. There's a lot of hard work that's gone in over the last 12 months to get us to this point and we certainly took a lot of belief from the performances last year. I'm just extremely proud of the boys, going out there and showing off our skills.

"We haven't had as much T20 cricket as we might have liked but we have had a lot of 50-over cricket so it was really important for us to transfer those skills as quickly as we could. I'm just extremely delighted that we managed to do that. I thought that George Munsey and Michael Jones were excellent up front, giving us that platform and the West Indies pulled it to get it back in those middle overs. We had a few good cameos towards the end which we knew gave us a competitive score. I thought our bowlers were exceptional in that second innings."

While the Windies are without the likes of Chris Gayle, Dwayne Bravo, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine and Kieron Pollard in Australia, they were still fancied in a group also containing Ireland and Zimbabwe. But chilly conditions at the Bellerive Oval seemed to play into Scotland’s hands and the Windies must now win their last two group games to give themselves the best chance of avoiding an ignominious exit.

“The only way you can look at it is – disappointed,” said Windies head coach Phil Simmons. “Our batting definitely was a bit unprofessional. We need to wake up and start being as professional as we can be when we are batting.”

Ireland slipped to a 31-run defeat to Zimbabwe in Monday’s other Group B encounter.

Scotland stun West Indies with historic victory at T20 World Cup

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