Scots exit in Sharjah
BUT BURGER VOWS PLAYERS CAN BITE BACK NEXT YEAR
SHANE BURGER praised his players’ endeavours as Scotland’s T20 World Cup adventure came to an end with a defeat to Pakistan in Sharjah. But the head coach acknowledged that he and his squad will need to find a way to somehow close the gap on the leading nations before returning to this stage at next year’s tournament in Australia.
The Saltires endured a topsy-turvy time in the Middle East, winning all three of their first-round games before being soundly beaten in all five Super 12 clashes.
They were competitive here for long spells as they frustrated the Pakistani batters in the first half of their innings but saw any chance of a victory slip from their grasp in the second half as Babar Azam and Shoaib Malik stepped on the gas to run up a half-century apiece.
The veteran Malik was particularly effective at the death, taking poor Chris Greaves for three maximums and another boundary in the final over to see Pakistan finish on 189-4.
Scotland, at one point, looked like giving themselves something closer to 160 to chase, which might have been makeable. But 190 was never likely and they didn’t put up much of a fight apart from Richie Berrington, who compiled a classy knock of 54 not out to end his tournament on a personal high as Scotland fell 73 runs shy of their target.
Reaching the Super 12 had been the pre-tournament objective but the trick over the next 12 months will be trying to find a way to make games with the bigger nations like Pakistan and India more competitive in future.
‘That ends the journey for us but we have no doubt now that we’ve created a platform to keep getting better,’ said coach Burger. ‘This experience will be invaluable for not only players, but also staff and as an organisation we need to pounce on what has been created here.
‘It’s been a long couple of months and it’s been very successful in many avenues, but we know we need to get better to be able to compete at the highest level.
‘It’s been a wonderful experience and an experience that I think the players will only get better from.’
On the match itself, Burger was left frustrated at a possible opportunity slipping away due to loose bowling and then an inability to go through the gears with the batting to put Pakistan under a little bit of pressure.
‘The first ten overs, I thought we were brilliant,’ said the South African. ‘Our execution, our planning and our energy just looked like we really belonged.
‘Pakistan were under extreme pressure. Then we just lost our way a touch, which can happen. Pakistan were able to exert a bit of pressure on us and we had a few moments that if we had grabbed them could have potentially changed the course of the game.’
This has been a rare chance for Scotland to appear in the spotlight against some of the biggest cricketing nations in the world. And captain Kyle Coetzer hoped it would help to create a lasting legacy.
‘Hopefully from the past seven weeks or so we’ve been able to inspire as many associate nations as we can and certainly young cricketers in Scotland,’ he said.
‘That’s how I started many years ago, watching Scotland play in a World Cup and hopefully a few more boys and girls will come through that and want to play for their country.’