England are in real danger of an early exit from the T20 World Cup after Scotland thrashed Oman by seven wickets with seven overs to spare.
Jos Buttler’s defending champions have endured a disappointing start to the tournament in the Caribbean, their opening match against the Scots ending in no result because of rain before a resounding loss against Australia.
They take on Oman in their next group match on Thursday and need to ensure a higher run rate than Scotland over their final two games – the other is against Namibia – to sneak into the Super 8 stage.
Oman scored a respectable 150-7 in their allotted 20 overs in Antigua on Sunday, but Scotland raced to 153-3 after 13.1 overs with Brandon McMullen and George Munsey top-scoring with 61 and 41 respectively.
Afterwards, McMullen said: “The main priority was to win the game and get the two points but, at the drinks break, we decided to have a crack at the net run rate.
“It gives us confidence going into the Australia game [on Sunday]. We’ve done really well as a group so far. We’ve got to stay level-headed, keep raising that bar.”
Despite a difficult start to the World Cup, England’s vice-captain Moeen Ali said: “You can’t get too down and go into our shells. We’ve just got to be really ruthless… otherwise we’re going home.
“We need to be more aggressive without being reckless. We play our best when our backs are against the wall.”
