Following a closely-fought match against New Zealand on Wednesday, Cricket Scotland are aiming to go one better today as they take on India in their penultimate match at the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup.
The side, who have yet to take a win in the Super 12s stage of the competition, will be looking to build on the positives of that performance against the Black Caps and cause an upset over India who need a win to stay in contention for a semi-final place.
Captain Kyle Coetzer believes that his side are capable of taking the opportunities that they missed against New Zealand and picking up a victory.
“Of course the excitement’s there. It’s been there for every game in this tournament. I think coming up against a side like India and maybe just throw things into a new level perhaps.
“It doesn’t matter which team you come up against, and the opportunity to try to test yourself against some of the best players in the world is a really important time for us, a phase in the Cricket Scotland journey, I guess, in terms of how we show and what we do and show what we’re capable of.
“We realise we have to play really, really well to give ourselves the best chance. There were opportunities in the New Zealand game that, if we look back now, moments in that game could have changed the outcome of the final result, but we have to be better and keep raising our bar to be capable and be willing to take those opportunities when they come around.
“Obviously it’s a formidable challenge coming up against a very strong Indian team full of exciting players. We’ve got to try to push that to one side, to be honest, and just try and take on the challenges that we face in front of us on the day.
“It might sound a bit of a cliche, but we have to focus on what we’re really good at and what’s going to give us the best chance of winning the game of cricket. We’ll do our homework on India, as any team will do, and we know the skills they’ve got within their camp. When we go into that game, we can’t fear the players, but we’ve got to respect them. We’ll go in trying to give it everything we’ve got.”
Scotland will be without seamer Josh Davey who has had to withdraw from the competition due to a groin injury. He has been replaced in the squad by Michael Jones.
The match starts at 2pm UK time with coverage on Sky Sports and BBC Radio with regular updates on the Cricket Scotland twitter channel.
