Scotland vs Hong Kong 1st ODI Prediction

They will have high hopes on Anshuman Rath, Nizakat Khan and captain Babar Hayat to take the team to a good score. Nizakat Khan struck a 43-ball 62 in the T20I against Ireland and had made 94 against Scotland at the start of this year. We expect him to continue his form and score the most runs for his team in today's match. Anshuman too scored 97 against Scotland and had made 89 runs in the 2015 UAE series which includes a fine fifty.

Tanwir Afzal and Aizaz Khan have been Hong Kong's best seamers in recent times and the two are expected to do some early damage to the Scottish innings. Nadeem Ahmed will be the biggest threat among the spinners and he should be backed to be the top bowler from Hong Kong. The left-armer had notched up five wickets in the ODI series against the UAE in 2015, four against Scotland this year and took two wickets in the recently played T20I against Ireland.

Our Prediction

Scotland's performance at Edinburgh has been ordinary at best. In the 14 ODIs here, they have won just 3 and lost 9. Two of these matches did not produce a result. They have played five ODIs this year with two wins and two losses while one was washed out.

Hong Kong will have an upper hand ahead of this match as they have beaten Scotland by 109 runs in the only ODI to be played between the two teams. They have played three ODIs since 2015 and have wins in all three of them. They, however, did lose all their four matches in 2014.

Hong Kong have never played at this ground before and this is something which could work in Scotland's favor. But the visitors are coming off the back of a 40-run T20I victory over Ireland and we feel that they are better placed to win this first one-day international.