The opposing trajectories of West Indies and Scotland

Oh flowers of Scotland! It's not so much that they beat West Indies in their men's World Cup qualifier at Harare Sports Club (HSC) on Saturday. After all they now own consecutive victories over them, having won the T20 World Cup match between the teams in Hobart in October.

It's also not that the Scots have come out on top in 16 of the 27 white-ball internationals they have played from December 2022. Nor that they are 12th in the ODI rankings, above Nepal, the Netherlands and the UAE - the other three teams who were included in the ICC pecking order for the first time in June 2018. Nor that they have easily the highest winning percentage of those teams since then. From June 2018 they have won 38.12% more of their ODIs than the Dutch.

Nor is it that Scotland have beaten Ireland, the UAE and Oman - and lost only to Sri Lanka - during the qualifiers despite the absence from their ranks of 108 caps worth of white-ball international experience. Brad Currie, Josh Davey and Michael Jones have opted to stay with their counties, while Brad Wheal is injured but likely would have done the same.

Unfairly, for neutrals of a certain age and perspective, nothing Scotland did at HSC on Saturday mattered as much as the confirmation of the unhappy transformation of the men in maroon to maroon macaroons, to crumbling Caribbean cookies. They are fragile and easily chewed, swallowed and forgotten; mere morsels of empty calories. And now, for the first time, they are not good enough to go to a World Cup: Saturday's result means West Indies have no chance of qualifying for this year's tournament in India in October and November.

It's been a long time coming - since 1995, when the Windies' domination of the global game started to slip. For 20 years from the start of the inaugural World Cup in 1975, when they triumphed, they won 265 of the 452 matches they played - a success rate of 58.63% - and lost only 121. Since then they have won 355 and lost 536 of 999; a winning percentage of 35.54. The difference is 23.09%.

That's a hopelessly inadequate way to gauge decline. Rather the truth of it is in the West Indians' sloped shoulders and slow movement, in their bleak disbelief at having played another poor stroke, in their desperate trudge through the memories of how good their elders and betters were used as they make their way towards the boundary.

In 1976, Tony Greig, England's unpleasantly aggressive South Africa-born captain, was rightly castigated for saying, before the start of a Test series that would define the era, "You must remember that the West Indians, these guys, if they get on top are magnificent cricketers. But if they're down, they grovel, and I intend, with the help of [Brian Close] and a few others, to make them grovel."

Thus provoked by an undeserving beneficiary of a deeply racist society drawing too close a connection with slavery, Clive Lloyd's West Indians whipped their former masters 3-0. The real sadness of their current state is that now they are struggling under the weight of their own accumulated failures.

The assumption that the good times would keep on rolling in the Caribbean, and other teams' efforts to catch up, notably Australia's, cost West Indies their place at the top of the pile. This we have known for ages. But the past seven days have brought push to shove with rude and indecent haste.

Last Saturday, in front of a roaring, rollicking HSC crowd of 21,000 in a ground built for 10,000 - around 4,000 of the extra 11,000 were accommodated on the rugby field next door, which was equipped with a big screen - they were beaten by Zimbabwe. These things happen, especially against a confident, skilled, talented, ably captained, cleverly coached, passionately supported home side.

But, at Takashinga on Monday, the Netherlands ran West Indies off their feet; first piling up 374/9, their record ODI total, to tie the match and then dominating the super over thanks to Logan van Beek's heroics with bat and ball.

And then came the bonnie Scots, well drilled and flinty, and not at all awed. Winning the toss on another damp Harare morning helped, but it still needed proper bowling to reduce the Windies to 81/6 inside 21 overs. Brandon McMullen knocked over the top order of Johnson Charles, Shamarh Brooks and Brandon King in the space of 14 of his deliveries and at the bargain price of seven runs. Jason Holder and Romario Shepherd staved off utter ignominy with a stand of 77, but a target of 182 was never going to be enough to hold Richie Berrington's side. They knew it, and wended their way to victory with seven wickets standing and 6.5 overs to spare.

Christopher McBride slapped the first ball of the reply, a full toss from Holder, straight into midwicket's hands. But Matthew Cross and McMullen snuffed out any hope of a fightback with a partnership of 125. Cross took his team home with an unbeaten 74.

Unlike on Monday, when, led by Holder, the West Indians kept up a lively level of chatter in the field until deep into the Dutch innings, a forlorn and desolate silence prevailed as the Scots chased the runs. The last ball of the 12th over captured the mood - Akeal Hosein bowled to McMullen, who swept to midwicket, where Kyle Mayers shelled the catch. For good measure, the throw back to the middle sailed high and wide of everything and a bonus run accrued.

"No difficult questions, please," Holder implored as he arrived for a press conference. "There are no easy questions," he was promptly told. For instance, had he known a more dismal moment in his more than 10 years and 251 matches as a West Indies international?

"This is probably one of the lowest points I've had with the team, but there's still a lot of positives," Holder said. "I was really happy and excited for Nicholas [Pooran, the tournament's second-highest runscorer] and the way he has played throughout this competition.

"It's good to see some of the younger guys get an opportunity on a big stage, and try to grasp it. I don't think all is lost. There's a lot of young guys in the group who can definitely develop and turn things around for West Indies cricket. We've got a young crop of guys. We've just got to put some support around them."

Pooran turns 28 in October. Shai Hope and Roston Chase, the Windies' next most successful batters in the qualifiers, are 29 and 31. Their leading wicket-takers are Alzarri Joseph, Mayers and Hosein, who are 26, 31 in September and 30. That's not a lot of youth. But, if you're Holder, struggling for little reward as your 32nd birthday looms in November, maybe almost everybody else seems younger and fresher.

"It's disappointing, especially after last year's effort in the T20 World Cup where we didn't qualify [for the second round]. I've had the luxury of playing in two 50-over World Cups and a couple of T20 World Cups. They're special occasions. This one will definitely hurt, as the one last year did. But there's no point moping and keeping our heads down. We've got to find a way to turn our cricket around and head in the direction we need to head in consistently. There've been too many fluctuations between good and bad performances."

There was no such gloom in the eyes of Doug Watson, Scotland's coach and a South African far more pleasant than Greig: "That's a proper blueprint for how we want to play. Bowl a team out - we dropped one catch unfortunately - and then someone in the top four batted through the innings. That's what we're looking to do in all our games.

"It shows that we can compete at this level. We realise we have to play at our best to compete. It's tough cricket. Games like this are a real highlight for us and we look forward to them. We see it as a privilege to play in them."

No-one intercepted Watson as he left the room. Holder was asked to stop and pose for selfies. It's not much, but at least the Windies will have that when they are sent homeward to think again.