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Scotland vs Italy T20 Cricket World Cup Predictions - Bruce to lead Scotland to first win

Simon Lewis

Editor

Last updated: 08 Feb 2026

Simon Lewis 08 Feb 2026

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Tom Bruce hit six sixes in his 50-ball 95 against Central Districts at the end of January.
Wayne Madsen scored 61* off 46 balls against Ireland.
Can Scotland bounce back from their loss to the West Indies by beating Italy in their second group match?

Expired

Tom Bruce hits out against the West Indies (Getty Images).

Scotland vs Italy Predictions

Scotland won two of their four group matches in the last T20 World Cup and have enjoyed a lot more game play against top opposition in recent years. Italy are making their debut in the tournament but have a lot of experienced, journeymen cricketers in their ranks and have the capacity to create an upset or two. Scotland put in a good performance against the West Indies, so I’m backing them in this match.

Scotland vs Italy Predictions
Head-to-Head
Scotland Form
Italy Form
Scotland vs Italy Team News & Squads

Scotland’s Tom Bruce has scored 95, 20 and 35 runs in his last three innings.
Scotland’s Richie Berrington has scored 46 and 42 in his last 2 innings.
Italy’s Wayne Madsen averages 34.16 in T20Is (S/R 132.25).
Italy’s Anthony Mosca has scored 35, 69, 22 & 56 in his last 5 innings.

Head-to-Head

Scotland and Italy have met twice in T20Is, with each side winning one match. Scotland won by 155 runs in 2023, with Italy winning the next match in July 2025 by 12 runs.

Scotland Form

Scotland came into the World Cup on the back of warm-up defeats to Namibia and Afghanistan. They lost their opening match of this World Cup to the West Indies by 35 runs.

Scotland’s bowlers did well to contain the West Indies top-order, only for a late flurry to lift the favourites to 182/5 off their 20 overs. Brad Currie bowled tightly before knocking over dangermen Sherfane Rutherford and Rovman Powell in returning figures of 2/23 (econ 5.75). Oliver Davidson knocked over Brandon King in taking 1/23 (econ 7.66).

Scotland recovered from 37/3 in the sixth over thanks to a brilliant 68-run stand for the fourth wicket between Richie Berrington (42 off 24) and Tom Bruce (35 off 28) that put their side in a great position to push for the win. Great bowling and fielding from the West Indies saw Scotland collapse to 147 off 18.5 overs. The Scots lost their last seven wickets for just 32 runs, which is an area Italy’s strong bowling attack will look to exploit.

Italy Form

Italy ended a three-match losing streak by beating Ireland in the last match of their T20 series by four wickets. They beat Canada and the UAE in their two warm-up matches ahead of the World Cup.

South African-born batter Wayne Madsen has been a consistent performer on the English County circuit and has been one of Italy’s top performers since his debut in 2023. Anthony Mosca has been consistent at the top of the order and has established a good opening partnership with his younger brother Justin Mosca. JJ Smuts scored 49 off 37 balls against Canada, along with picking up 2/18, 1/30 and 2/9 in his last three matches for Italy.

Grant Stewart has taken 3/21, 2/27 and 3/7 in his last five matches, along with scoring 33* and 29 in his last two innings. Crishan Kalugamage took 3/28 against Canada and 3/18 against the UAE in his side’s last two warm-up matches before the World Cup.

Scotland vs Italy Team News & Squads

Scotland captain Richie Berrington was pleased with his team's performance in their opener against the West Indies, despite the disappointment of falling short in the chase. “The first 20 overs in the field were were really good and coming off the field at the halfway stage we were very confident. We got ourselves into a really strong position where we thought we could chase their total down but losing two set batters within a couple overs changed the momentum a little bit,” said Berrington.

Italy skipper Wayne Madsen was upbeat about his side's chances ahead of the tournament. “There’s a lot of respect and togetherness in the group. We’ve been open about our journeys and how we got here, and that helped during the qualifiers. It will definitely help us going into the World Cup as well. It’s about taking it one game at a time. Scotland is first, and we want to match the level of performance we showed during the qualifiers," said Madsen.

Scotland squad: Richie Berrington (c), Tom Bruce, Matthew Cross, Bradley Currie, Oliver Davidson, Chris Greaves, Zainullah Ihsan, Michael Jones, Michael Leask, Finlay McCreath, Brandon McMullen, George Munsey, Safyaan Sharif, Mark Watt, Bradley Wheal. Travelling reserves: Jasper Davidson, Jack Jarvis, Non-travelling reserves: Mackenzie Jones, Chris McBride, Charlie Tear

Italy squad: Wayne Madsen (c), Marcus Campopiano, Gian Piero Meade, Zain Ali, Ali Hasan, Crishan Jorge Kalugamage, Harry Manenti, Anthony Mosca, Justin Mosca, Syed Naqvi, Benjamin Manenti, Jaspreet Singh, JJ Smuts, Grant Stewart, Thomas Draca

Verdict

Scotland v Italy

I am backing Scotland to win. I am also backing Tom Bruce to top score for Scotland.

Wayne Madsen is a good bet to top score for Italy.

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Simon is a talented sports writer in South Africa with a strong focus on cricket having played first-team level for UCT, including playing at two Universities Weeks.

From a young age Simon was an avid reader of cricket magazines and books, and went on to be Editor of The Googly, CricketScene SA and SA Cricket, in addition to being a Features Writer on SA Sports Illustrated.

He has interviewed most of South Africa's premier cricketers and was the first writer to interview a teenaged Jacques Kallis.

Simon has also written about English and local football, rugby and cricket, in addition to major international tennis and golf stars and competitions.

You can follow more from Simon at Muckrack, X and LinkedIn.