MacLeod credits form with off-season tweaks

Scotland batsman Calum MacLeod has credited a return to form to technical adjustments made during a winter of off-season training with his county side Durham. MacLeod’s 103 in a win over UAE on Tuesday was his third ODI ton for Scotland and first since 2014.

“It’s been a year without a hundred for Scotland so to get a monkey off my back in putting in a winning performance again, I’m really really happy personally,” MacLeod told ESPNcricinfo after the win in Edinburgh.

MacLeod had an outstanding 2014 for Scotland, beginning that January by scoring two centuries at the 2014 World Cup Qualifier in New Zealand including a Scotland ODI record 175 against Canada. He ended the year in solid form as well, notching 116 not out in a win over Ireland at Malahide in September.

However, 2015 was a nightmare for MacLeod. A pre-World Cup tour to the UAE to play fellow World Cup participants Ireland and Afghanistan in a desert tri-series netted three runs in five innings opening the batting. Things didn’t get much better at the World Cup either. He scored off one ball in his first 12 deliveries of the tournament, registering two ducks along the way to complete a string of four noughts in six innings that began in Dubai.

After being Scotland’s second-highest scorer in New Zealand a year earlier at the Qualifier, with 401 runs in eight innings, he ended the World Cup with 50 runs in six innings. He struggled at the World T20 Qualifier back on home soil later in the summer too, finishing fifth in the team in runs with 114 from seven innings and a best of just 29.

That form slump carried to Durham as well. In 2014, MacLeod was …

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