5 Top Associate Cricketing Nations Of All Time
The Associate teams in cricket, in the past decade, have been roaring and have created enormous upsets over Full-Time Member Nations. Not only have the Associate teams won the hearts of many, they have also produced some of the most cool-headed cricketers in adverse situations.
We take a look at some of the best Associate teams from the past decade who have sprung surprises.
#5 Scotland
Scotland became the Associate Members of the (ICC) International Cricket Council in 1994. Since then, they've played in three World Cups and three ICC World Twenty20 tournaments. They played their first One-day International against Australia in 1999 in a losing effort.
Their captain, Kyle Coetzer has played some of the most influential innings in One-day cricket. His highest score of 156 came against Bangladesh in the 2015 World Cup which led them to a mammoth score of 318. However, owing to Scotland not holding and capitalizing on to the chances, they ended up losing the match.
Scotland's first victory against a Test-playing nation came when they beat Zimbabwe in a rain-hit encounter. The win came on the back of yet another century from Coetzer. Scotland won the match by 26 runs with Zimbabwe chasing a revised target of 299 in 43 overs which had originally been 318 in 50 overs.
Scotland's most notable win till date in One-day Internationals was against England on 10th June 2018. Batting first, Scotland had bludgeoned a gigantic score of 371, spearheaded by MacLeod's breezy 140. England looked more than comfortable during their chase. Scotland sparked a comeback by taking the wickets of the middle order batsmen quite cheaply. Nevertheless, Liam Plunkett and Moeen Ali did keep them in the hunt with a 71-run partnership. However, England had been dismissed for 365, falling short of six runs to secure a nail-biting win.