Saltires keep Botha at bay to secure stunning win over Warwickshire

In a match reduced to 22 overs-a-side, the Saltires seemed to have thrown away their chances after crawling to 120-7.

However, while Sunday's win over Northamptonshire owed most to a solid batting performance, here the bowlers and fielders came into their own to seal an improbable victory by four runs. The margin might have been even greater had it not been for a brutal counter-attack from Bears all-rounder Ant Botha that set home nerves jangling.

His team had slid to 86-8 and 32 runs were still needed from the last two overs.

However, Botha bludgeoned three sixes in a rapid 45 and he needed one more maximum from the final delivery of the match. However, skipper Gordon Drummond held his nerve with a precious dot ball as Scotland sealed a thrilling win.

A delighted - and relieved - Drummond said: "I think at the start of the last over Botha was more relaxed than me because he had nothing to lose.

"Then in a funny way things swapped over and he became a bit nervous and I was the one who felt more at ease.

"Luckily I managed to keep the runs down after the first two balls and it is a great feeling to get a second win.

"I was more than happy to take the last over because if I can't take the responsibility myself how could I ask anyone else to? But it is not about me. It is not a bad feeling bowling the last over when 19 runs are needed and the reason they still needed that many was because of how well all the lads bowled and fielded.

"It is probably the best display in the field I can remember from a Scotland side."

Taking the pace off the ball from the start, the Scottish bowlers applied pressure and the fielders took their chances when they came.

Neil McCallum set the tone by holding on to a steepling catch to remove Varun Chopra off Josh Davey.

It was the first of three wickets for the Middlesex all-rounder who had laboured with the bat but more than atoned in also removing Will Porterfield and Rikki Clarke.The Bears should still have had enough firepower to recover from 42-3 but Scotland refused to entertain such a notion.

Instead Preston Mommsen had Jim Troughton well caught by Calum MacLeod at long on before Chris Woakes gloved one to Gregor Maiden.

Meanwhile, Majid Haq piled on the pressure with a miserly spell of five overs for just 14 runs with the bonus wicket of Keith Barker.

Botha looked capable of spoiling the party with that late onslaught but Drummond came up trumps at the death.

Having surprisingly elected to bat in overcast conditions, Scotland suffered the worst possible start when Kyle Coetzer, the century hero 24 hours earlier, was out for a duck to the third ball of day.

The on-loan Durham batsman attempted to hook a short Neil Carter delivery but spooned the ball to mid-wicket where Chopra took a running catch.

MacLeod, promoted to open, launched a brief counter-attack with three consecutive boundaries off his former Edgbaston colleague Neil Carter.

The Uddingston man cut, hooked and drove his old pal with impressive timing but the onslaught was cut short in the next over when England pace bowler Woakes trapped Macleod lbw for 15.

George Worker, another player sent in ahead of schedule, took up the attack with a flurry of boundaries, the best of them a hook off Clarke that just failed to clear the deep mid-wicket boundary.

However, Scotland's New Zealand import, edged Clarke's next delivery to Richard Johnson and departed for 27, made from 20 deliveries.

At 51-3 after nine overs the Saltires were in need of some impetus to their innings but instead the boundaries dried up as Davey, in particular, struggled to put the ball away.

The Middlesex man's 30-run partnership with Fraser Watts seemed to last an eternity before Watts was trapped for 16 by Botha while Davey's painstaking 24 runs came from 41 deliveries.

At least, though, the Saltires batted out the overs, allowing Mommsen to add what proved to be a crucial unbeaten 24.