SCOTLAND’S T20 World Cup adventure ended as expected with defeat to Pakistan but Kyle Coetzer hoped the experiences gained over the past two months would provide a platform to go on to bigger and better things.
Pakistan had already booked their place in the semi-finals but showed no mercy in Sharjah as they recovered from a slow start to rack up 189/4 from their 20 overs.
Richie Berrington made 54 not out in the reply but Scotland didn’t have the firepower to put in a proper chase and ended up on 117/6, 73 runs short of their target.
Shane Burger’s side fly home having lost all five of their Super 12 games but Coetzer was not overly despondent.
“I’m very proud of what we’ve achieved,” said the captain. “We’ve got some fantastic players among our group. We’re going to take some huge learnings from this – playing in conditions like this in the UAE are challenging and different for us.
“Hopefully there’s a lot of exciting things ahead. We’ve got a World Cup to prepare for and a lot of World Cricket League series in between too.”
It was something of a surprise that Pakistan chose to bat after winning the toss but it saw Hamza Tahir thrown in at the deep end in his first tournament appearance.
Handed the ball against one of the finest opening partnerships in the game, the Paisley spinner would have been relieved that his opening over went for just a single.
It was a similar story over the next three overs as Scotland kept Pakistan in check and also passed up two half-chances at an early wicket, Mark Watt dropping a catch off his own bowling that was smashed at him by Babar Azam before the same batter also survived when a loose shot only narrowly evaded Safyaan Sharif.
A wicket was coming, however, and it fell to Tahir on the first ball of his second spell, getting Mohammad Rizwan to feather an edge to Matthew Cross.
There was an end-of-trip feel about some of it, a mood heightened by the sight of Richie Berrington trundling into bowl for the first time at this World Cup.
A second Pakistan wicket fell before the halfway stage, Michael Leask taking a catch after Fahkar Zaman had tried to take Chris Greaves over the boundary.
Pakistan weren’t really hitting top gear at this point and they survived a run-out attempt, with Mohammad Hafeez getting back in time to beat Tahir’s throw.
Hafeez and Azam were starting to get into their rhythm and the former took Sharif for 14 runs in the 15th over.
The Scot, however, had one ball left and used it cleverly to have Hafeez trapped lbw for 31. Azam was still going strong and brought up his fourth 50 of the tournament.
The opener moved on to 66 before he went for one big shot too many. It’s a moment that Greaves will remember for a long time as Azam didn’t get enough on it and George Munsey pouched the catch.
Shoaib Malik was still there and looking dangerous and he heaved Sharif over the rope to bring up Pakistan’s 150.
And he produced a devastating final over off Greaves, the last five deliveries going for six-four-six-wide-six to take the game away from Scotland, with Malik ending on 54 not out from just 18 balls.
That all-but-ended any chance of a shock win with Scotland unable to take the game to their opponents when they really needed to make quick boundaries if they were to pull it off.
Munsey again started brightly and made 17 before being caught, Coetzer endured an awkward stint at the crease while Cross was unfortunate to be run out at the non-striker’s end.
Only Berrington, assisted by Michael Leask (14), endured, clouting a maximum and four boundaries in a classy half-century.
The Scotland team will now fly home for a well-deserved rest before starting their preparations to do it all again in Australia this time next year.
“That ends the journey for us but we have no doubt now that we’ve created a platform to keep getting better,” said 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.”
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