Advertisement

Kyle Coetzer urges Scotland to bid farewell to the T20 World Cup in style

Scotland captain Kyle Coetzer wants his team to take their leave of the T20 World Cup in style (Robert Perry/PA) (PA Archive)
Scotland captain Kyle Coetzer wants his team to take their leave of the T20 World Cup in style (Robert Perry/PA) (PA Archive)

Kyle Coetzer has urged Scotland to bid farewell to the T20 World Cup with all guns blazing as they bring down the curtain on their campaign against in-form Pakistan on Sunday.

The Scots, who have lost all four of their Group 2 fixtures to date, go head-to-head with the semi-finalists in Sharjah with nothing to lose, and captain Coetzer wants his men to enjoy themselves.

He said: “We’ve got one last show, one last crack of the whip while we’re out here. We’re not going to play together for a long period of time. We’re not going to play together until April probably.

“We have to make every opportunity of every game that we get – and what better game and what better team to play against than Pakistan? They’re at the top of their game at the moment. That’s just an ultimate test and to challenge yourself against them.

“We’ll go in there with as much enjoyment and freedom as we possibly can and try and make the most of the opportunity. We have some skills we haven’t yet shown in the Super 12s, so tomorrow is the last chance we get to show them.”

Scotland made it through to the Super 12s with victories over Bangladesh Papua New Guinea and Oman but have since lost heavily to Afghanistan and India as well as Namibia and New Zealand, on what has proved to be a steep learning curve.

Referring to Friday’s eight-wicket defeat at the hands of India, Coetzer said: “I firmly believe we had to go through that and go through some of these performances out here to realise how far and how much further the T20 format has developed, even since the last time we played in it, which was 2016.

“And we didn’t manage to get through the group stages then, but we did this time around, so we’re sure our development is there. But the development of the game is moving at an amazing rate.”

Read More

Who are Isis-K?

Al-Qaeda ‘could regroup in Afghanistan in two years and threaten US’

Biden overruled Blinken and Austin on Afghanistan pullout, book says