Scots, Dutch fight for right to World Cup party

What right do Scotland have to play in the men's World Cup? Or the Netherlands? Won't they have the stuffing batted, bowled and fielded out of them and be put on the first flight home after the group stage?

Rather than those no-hopers, why aren't two of West Indies, Ireland or Zimbabwe going to the global showpiece in India in October and November? Simply, because they haven't been good enough in the qualifiers in Harare and Bulawayo in the past two-and-a-half weeks. And the Scots and the Dutch have been good enough.

The Windies lost to Zimbabwe, the Netherlands and Scotland. Ireland went down to Oman, the Scots and Sri Lanka. The hosts reeled off five victories, then crashed out of the running by losing to the Lankans and Scotland.

So the Dutch and the Scots will face off at Queens Sports Club in Bulawayo on Thursday in the most important match of the tournament. At stake will be a place in Sunday's final against Sri Lanka at Harare Sports Club. Both finalists will earn World Cup berths. There is a chance the Scots could lose on Thursday but still make it to Sunday on net runrate.

The Netherlands have progressed this far by beating the United States, Nepal, West Indies and Oman. Scotland have earned wins over Ireland, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, West Indies and Zimbabwe.

The Dutch were comfortably the worst team in the World Cup Super League (WCSL), winning just three of their 24 matches. The Scots topped World Cup league 2 with 24 victories from 36 games. There is a touch of poetry, then, in the bottom side in the premier competition meeting the leading team from the next level down to snaffle the last remaining spot in international white-ball cricket's blue riband event.

Michael Leask didn't need to be reminded of the context. "The Dutch have played against world class opposition for the last two or three years while we've been playing associate cricket," he told a press conference in Bulawayo on Wednesday. "I firmly believe associate cricket is one of the hardest forms to play. Every single game is an absolute scrap.

"You don't know when your next full member fixture is going to be, or when your next big fixture is going to be. But every fixture we get as a Cricket Scotland (CS) nation, getting to step on that park, is an absolute privilege. Tomorrow is no different. We've got another huge opportunity against another European rival.

"Who would have thought it would be us v Holland to go through to the World Cup? That's all I'm going to say; two teams who you might have said would finish fifth and sixth [in the qualifiers] are now fighting it out for one place in a World Cup, where three Test nations have not made it because they've been beaten by smaller teams.

"That, to me, is a sign of how good the teams that have to fight harder want it. Because there's not as much funding, there's not as much everything. But, my goodness, we have to fight hard to make it happen."

Five years ago the Scots came to Zimbabwe and failed to qualify for the 2019 World Cup, not least because of poor umpiring. Eight members of their current squad were part of that experience, which "hurt us a lot", Leask said. But what hasn't killed them has made them stronger.

"We're never going to give up in this tournament," Leask, one of the eight survivors from 2018, said. "There's been times when we've been behind the eight-ball and times where we've been losing the arm-wrestle. But in every single game we've come out and changed that, and someone has put a hand up - Richie [Berrington] getting a hundred [against the UAE], 'Solely' [Chris Sole] getting man-of-the-match [against Zimbabwe], Brandon [McMullen] getting a hundred [against Oman] and a five-for [against Ireland].

"There's guys in every single game putting their hand up for the shark. That's what we've got to do tomorrow. It might be three guys who have to do it, it might be one. It might be all 11 of us. We might need to do something absolutely special to win the game."

This time the Scots came to Zimbabwe under dark clouds cast by an independent investigation damning the game in their country as institutionally racist. The investigation's report, which was published in January, discovered 448 indicators of institutional racism. CS failed 29 of 31 tests and satisfied the conditions for the other two only partially. The incidents that led to the probe had prompted reports of hate crimes to police.

"We have been through a bit of a tough time," Leask conceded. "But the way this group's handled itself, the way we've conducted ourselves, the way we've ... we wear this shirt with a lot of pride, and for us it's all about leaving the shirt better than we found it. I believe this group's going a long way to doing that. Yes, there's been some tough times, but we're out here competing and we're doing a very, very good job of it at the moment.

"Back home the support's been absolutely phenomenal. I can't thank enough the people who've messaged. The messages are going through the roof. We've put three Test nations out of the World Cup. What more can we say. We've had unbelievable support. We've got one more game to go to make them proud."

Scott Edwards didn't support Leask's suggestion that the hard scrabble of associate cricket was tougher than trying to survive in the WCSL. "From the younger guys but even the older guys, the confidence you get from coming up against these full member teams throughout the Super League was massive for us," Edwards told a press conference in Bulawayo on Wednesday (July 5).

"You look at our youngsters like Aryan Dutt, Shariz Ahmed, Vikram Singh - these sort of guys were thrown in the deep end at the start of the Super League. Where they are now, whether they are coming up against Scotland or Sri Lanka, there's no spotlight to it. It's just another game of cricket. We feel like coming into this sort of tournament, we've done it all before. We took a lot of confidence from that and it shows."

Both the Dutch and Scottish squads have been depleted by players choosing county over country, but Edwards said his players had taken that in their stride: "Whether guys are here or not here doesn't really change the type of squad that we are. When the guys come in they are amazing. They fit right into our culture, and if they are not there we are comfortable with the players we've got."

The Dutch were at the 1996, 2003, 2007 and 2011 editions of the World Cup, and the Scots at the 1999, 2007 and 2015 tournaments. Between them they have two wins to show for the effort they have put into 34 matches - one of them, at Basseterre in 2007 - by the Netherlands over Scotland.

But that doesn't mean anything for Thursday's game, which looms as a clash between Scottish upstarts and the more established Dutch. The latter are probably favourites, but the ruthlessness with which the Scots broke Zimbabwean hearts in Bulawayo on Tuesday - defending 234 to confirm the home side's elimination - spoke of a team who were willing to put everything on the line to win. As Leask said, "If you're not sore after a game like yesterday then you're not doing it the right way."

The chances of these two teams reaching the business end of the World Cup are slim. But we heard something similar before the qualifiers, and look where they are now: playing for a place on the biggest stage while supposedly better teams can only watch.