CURRIE 'N RISE

Scots ace aiming to have last laugh on joker Jot

- Mike Walters

ENGLAND should never lose to Scotland at cricket – but it happened the last time they met.

If Jos Buttler’s Twenty20 World Cup holders come unstuck in Barbados today, it would be the biggest shock in bilateral sporting combat between two proud nations since Englishman Scott Rider won tossing the caber at the Highland Games four times in six years.

The bookies have called it as a mismatch between peashooters and mortar fire, with Buttler’s men 1/20 to open their defence of the crown convincingly.

But 13 months before Eoin Morgan’s side became world champions over the 50-over course in 2019, Scotland edged a high-scoring game at The Grange in Edinburgh by six runs.

Fired by Calum MacLeod’s 140 not out off just 94 balls, they answered coach Grant Bradburn’s call to go “hunting history” despite Jonny Bairstow’s violent 54-ball century in reply.