Scotland vs England: Calum MacLeod shines in hosts' historic six-run victory in one-off ODI

Edinburgh: Scotland beat England by six runs to record the greatest win in their cricket history as they held their nerve in an one-off one-day international at Edinburgh on Sunday.

Calum MacLeod’s superb 140 not out powered non-Test nation Scotland to a record 371 for five against an England side who are top of the one-day international rankings.

It looked as if England would win while Jonny Bairstow was at the crease. The England opener made a quickfire 105 off just 59 balls to give the visitors the perfect start while chasing such a mammoth score.

However, they suffered a middle-order collapse and the match ended with seven balls remaining when Scotland paceman Saf Sharif had England No 11 Mark Wood plumb leg before to seal a famous victory.

Though Moeen Ali and Liam Plunkett hit some lusty blows to take England closer to the finish line, it was just not enough as the Scotland bowlers stuck to their plan to scrape out a memorable victory over the top-ranked ODI side. Mark Watt was the pick of the Scotland bowlers as he picked up three wickets giving away just 55 runs in his quota of ten overs.

The win came in Scotland’s first match since they agonisingly just missed out on qualification for the 2019 World Cup in Zimbabwe in March.

With inputs from AFP