On Sunday afternoon, Scotland Women will face Ireland Women in Abu Dhabi with a place at the 2024 ICC Women’s T20 World Cup at stake.
Scotland have already overcome the odds to reach this stage of the competition, having been seeded fifth ahead of the tournament, but are now just one win away from a historic first World Cup appearance.
The Scots progressed to the semi-finals with victories over Uganda, the USA and Thailand, their only loss coming to tournament favourites Sri Lanka, who topped the group.
Reflecting on the efforts so far, Head Coach Craig Wallace said: “It’s been excellent, the whole tour we’ve played some really good cricket, and equally just had a really enjoyable time as a group, so hopefully we can keep that going for a few more days.
“Obviously Brycey (Kathryn Bryce) has been outstanding at times, and really led from the front, which has been good to see, but the whole squad have been superb. When we’ve made changes, those who have come in have been excellent, which is credit to everyone, and we wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for all 15.
“A lot of the squad have been at these tournaments before and will have learned from those experiences, but this is a very different group. The way they’re behaving and acting, and playing on the pitch, is completely different to what they’ve done before, so hopefully we learn more from the group that we are now than what we have been in the past.”
It’s the first time since 2018 that Scotland have progressed as far as the semi-finals, and the opportunity that lies ahead is one that excites Wallace and his side.
“It’s exciting, as much as you say it’s just another game, it’s obviously a big game with a big carrot at the end of it, but I think we’re pretty clear that we’ve been playing good cricket so far, and we can go in with that same attitude, whilst accepting there’s a little bit more pressure on it.
“We know Ireland and they know us pretty well, it’s always a really good battle in every format. We want to play against good teams and play well against them, and hopefully we’ll come out on the right side of it.”
Scotland face Ireland at 1200 UK / 1500 UAE in the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup Qualifier semi-finals. Supporters can watch the action live and free on icc.tv.
