Will Jacks finished things off in style with a six and four off Brad Wheal at the start of the nineteenth over.

England would have happily taken a chase of 153 on a true pitch offering less spin than they encountered in Mumbai, but they were made to sweat horribly from the outset. Their own anxiety was part of the problem. Had they got off to a bright start, their task would have quickly become free of much pressure but, with Scotland’s seamers, not express pace, getting the ball to swing nicely, life was not easy.

Phil Salt and Jos Buttler both fell cheaply and once that happened England’s middle order had no choice but to proceed with caution. Both their dismissals were surprisingly tame and betrayed tight minds, Salt chipping tamely to cover and Buttler bunting the ball over mid-off with little power, allowing Brandon McMullen to run back and take a neat catch over his head.

Buttler only scored three but reached 4,000 runs in international T20s, only the fourth batsman after Babar Azam, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli to reach this milestone.

Jacob Bethell got the innings moving with three boundaries off McMullen but even so, England only took 43 off the six power-play overs. After their miserable showing against the West Indies spinners, England needed to show better intent this time and thanks to Banton they did.

He took a boundary off Michael Leask’s first over and then piled into Watt, taking three sixes off his first three legitimate balls. The over cost 22 and Watt, Scotland’s most seasoned operator, was not seen again until the 16th over.

If this soothed English spirits, things were quickly turned on their head. First Bethell, having reached a well made 32 from 28 balls, paddled a catch to short fine leg to end a partnership of 66 with Banton. Then Brook

, dropping onto his right knee, tried to fashion a fine sweep only to similarly pick out the man at short fine too. Given how many players had already perished attempting to hit spin across the line, this was a poor dismissal from a player whose winter has been littered with them.

Fortunately Curran joined Banton and with some judicious hitting fashioned a stand that took the sting out of a fraught evening. Curran was looking to finish things as fast as possible when he fell to Brad Wheal for 28 from 20 balls.

England’s bowlers did their job pretty well, with Jofra Archer bouncing back strongly from an expensive start to the tournament. Thanks to Archer’s double strike, Scotland lost three wickets inside the power-play and they were all men who made runs in the win over Italy, George Munsey, McMullen and Michael Jones, and this left them short of firepower later in the innings.

Richie Berrington and Tom Bruce led a spirited fightback with a partnership of 71 off 41 balls and at 105 for three after 12 overs Scotland looked nicely placed to reach 180 and beyond, which on a good pitch felt like the least they would need. But once Bruce went, slog-sweeping tamely into the hands of Curran at deep square leg, the innings began to subside.

Scotland lost their last seven wickets for 39 and did not even bat out their full allocation of overs.

Well though Adil Rashid and Liam Dawson bowled in sharing five wickets between them, there was little turn on offer and too many of Scotland’s batsmen were party to their own downfall. They picked out catchers in the deep with unerring accuracy, the fielder barely having to move a step to complete the dismissal.

Munsey started things off by trying to pull Archer, only to get a top edge that went vertically before coming down to Banton. Two balls later, Archer had his fiftieth T20 wicket for England when McMullen pulled aerially to deep square. Jones took 14 off three balls in Curran’s first over but then failed to spot the follow-up leg-cutter and holed out to deep mid-wicket.

Once Bruce departed, a lot depended on the captain Berrington but he like his ally in Scotland’s only stand of more than 25 got out when he was well set on 49. His departure was the result of some good bowling from Rashid, who had been kept out of the attack after his first two overs went for 26 but was recalled once Bruce went, creating an opening at one end.

Rashid’s first delivery was a quickish one which slid on and beat Berrington’s sweep; the batsman reviewed more in hope than expectation and sure enough it was umpire’s call on leg stump. Leask, a dangerous hitter, swept tamely into the hands of Curran at deep square in Dawson’s next over.

The slide was on and when Rashid picked up two more wickets Scotland were in danger of falling well short of 150. Thanks to a few lusty blows from Davidson they crept past that score. They looked well short of par but still had enough to make England sweat.