Any notion that Australia might take it easy on their first trip to Scotland for 11 years was brutally and quickly exposed as a myth on a chastening afternoon for the home side.
The Baggy Greens head from here down to England and, while winning there will undoubtedly be their priority, they approached the opening encounter of this warm-up series in Edinburgh as if it were the World Cup final itself.
Set a target of 155 after sending Scotland into bat, Mitch Marsh’s side chased it down so quickly that the bumper crowd packed into the Grange could scarcely believe what they were witnessing.
The danger of inviting one of the best teams in the world over for three matches is that they will always show their pedigree if the mood takes them and Australia were undoubtedly in the mood.
Travis Head was the star attraction, the opening bat racing to his half-century in just 17 balls -equalling a national record – to help his team post the highest-ever Powerplay score accrued by any nation of 113. After just six overs, the result was already all but secured.
Others did their bit too, with Marsh adding 39 from just 12 balls and Marcus Stoinis sealing the win with another mighty maximum, Australia’s 10th of their truncated innings.
It was an almighty wake-up call for Scotland and a problem they are going to need to fix quickly, with two further games to come on Friday and Saturday.
“It’s never nice being on the side of a result like that,” said captain Richie Berrington. “But you have to give a lot of credit to Australia and the way they played. For the first game I thought they adapted really well to the conditions and obviously it was an incredible innings from Travis Head.
“He’s been doing it for a while against some of the best teams in the world. The margin for error is very small and unfortunately for us today our execution wasn't quite there and teams like this are going to capitalise on that. So we have to try and improve on those things really quickly because we're going to have to come back again in two days’ time and put in a stronger performance.”
Only spinner Mark Watt of the Scottish bowlers was spared the heavy treatment, with T20I debutant Charlie Cassell, Brad Wheal and Jake Jarvis all victims of the Australian bombardment that at one point yielded 14 boundaries in succession.
“You need a bit of perspective,’ added Berrington. “This was Charlie's first game in a T20 international coming up against one of the best teams in the world and one of the best batsmen in the world who's been in the form of his life. So I think you also have to be mindful of that.
“And I think for them getting that experience under their belt is gold really, getting that exposure. We've just got to look to take it on the chin and come back stronger.”
Scotland had batted positively but every time they threatened to put together a productive partnership, a wicket would fall. That George Munsey was their top scorer on 28 told its own story, with nobody able to get away and put on a half-century to help their team to a more respectable tally.
“I thought we got off to a decent start but losing a couple of those guys through the middle made it tricky to push on to that 180-200 total,” added Berrington. “We fell a little bit short there but there are still some positive signs from what we did see with the bat. It's just trying to do that for a little bit longer in the game.”
It won’t have felt that way to the Scotland players but there was much to enjoy about the occasion itself as fans young and old piled into the Grange for the first visit of one of cricket’s leading lights since New Zealand stopped by in 2022. Berrington acknowledged the significance of the day but hoped he and his team could put on a stronger effort for those coming along on Friday and Saturday.
“Turning up today we obviously wanted to put in a really strong performance and look to get a win. Obviously it's not gone that way," he added. “But still to see crowds like this at our games and the excitement that's around when we're playing teams like Australia, especially in a series…it's not something we have done much of before.
“We haven't done it very often so that's still a massive positive and we have to enjoy that part of the experience as well. But we still want to look to put in some strong performances as the week goes on. We have to take what we can from it but also move on pretty quickly and figure out how we're going to be more effective against some of these players.”
