ICC World Cricket 2015: Scotland beat Ireland in warm-up

At Sydney's Olympic Park Scotland clinched an impressive 179-run win over Ireland, the strongest of the Associate nations who stunned England and Bangladesh at the 2011 World Cup. Matt Machan made 103 for the Scots with skipper Preston Mommsen (56) and Richie Berrington (52) also in the runs as they reached 296 for 6. In reply, Ireland skipper William Porterfield (23) and Paul Stirling (37) put on 57 for the first wicket inside 12 overs. But medium pace bowler Alasdair Evans then dismissed both openers as well as Ed Joyce and Niall O'Brien to finish with 4 for 17 off five overs. Ireland lost nine wickets for just 60 runs with only Gary Wilson (15) managing to join Porterfield and Stirling in double figures. The Irish side were all out for 117 in 27th overs. "We have worked hard on our fielding although I feel we could have been busier in the middle overs with the bat," said Machan, who once opened the batting for the England Under-18 team. "We take inspiration from what Afghanistan and Ireland have done. For us the journey starts now. I hope this group can hang around for the next five years." Porterfield rued his team's boor batting."That wasn't a 27-over wicket. We were sloppy in the field -- there's no excuse for where we ended up," he said.