Back to ‘reality’ for Scots

GRANT Bradburn admitted Scotland let Pakistan off the hook as they missed out on a major scalp.

After taking out t he w o r l d ’s top one-day international side with Sunday’s historic win over England, the Saltires aimed to complete a remarkable double by toppling the top Twenty20 nation.

But despite a decent start with the ball at the Grange, they let the tourists set a target of 205 before falling short in their run chase as they stuttered to 156 for six.

Bradburn refused to be too hard on his team but after seeing them miss chances to turn up the heat on Pakistan, t he head coach admitted the 48-run defeat was a reality check.

He said: “We’re gutted, which is a great sign of where our team is at.

“It’s definitely encouraging that we were competitive for much of the match but we’re not just about competing.

“We were 50 runs short and I sense there was 30 runs in the bowling and 20 runs with the bat that we left out there.”

Sunday’s six-run 50-over victory against England sparked wild celebrations but Bradburn insists it was a lack of practise in the shorter format that had hampered his side.

“It wasn’t difficult at all to get the boys focused again,” said Bradburn, whose side will have a second chance to beat Pakistan when they face off again on Wednesday. “They have been on a high and rightly so. They’ve deserved all the accolades they’ve been receiving.

“I think the challenge for us was just to remember how to play this game because we haven’t played T20 since early 2017.”

Grant Bradburn