Captain Kyle Coetzer may have had mixed feelings as he watched his Scotland team-mates secure their place in next year’s World Cup.
However, any feeling of frustration at missing out, through injury, on the closing stages of the qualifying campaign in New Zealand was kept well concealed as he joined the celebrations in the wake of victory against United Arab Emirates in the final of the World Cup Qualifying Trophy.
With Northants batsman Coetzer still nursing a wrist injury which meant he missed the latter stages of the tournament it was his replacement as captain, Preston Mommsen, who led the way with a brilliant 139 not out in a 41-run win at the Bert Sutcliffe Oval in Lincoln.
The victory secured a return to New Zealand a year from now when Aberdonian Coetzer will be back at the helm to lead the Scots in a mouth-watering series of fixtures. They open against co-hosts New Zealand in Dunedin on February 17 before squaring up to England at the Hagley Oval, Christchurch, in what will be a first World Cup meeting.
Matches against Afghan-istan and Bangladesh follow in Dunedin and Nelson before the Scots travel to Tasmania to complete the group phase against Sri Lanka and the other co-hosts Australia at the Bellerive Oval, Hobart, on March 14.
Coetzer was happy to delight in the efforts of his team-mates and particularly Mommsen who had been forced to miss last November’s World Twenty20 qualifiers with a pelvic injury.
“I don’t think we could have asked for any more from all the guys and I don’t really think things could have gone any better,” said Coetzer, the former Stoneywood-Dyce player. “I am especially pleased for Preston because it was tough for him not being at the Twenty20s and, of course, you can see from his performances here you can’t replace guys like that.
“He has matured and shown his class with the way he can hit boundaries and then find gaps to get off strike.”
Mommsen was named player of the tournament after scoring 520 runs at an average of almost 87 with two centuries, but the highest score in the tournament belonged to Calum MacLeod, another of Scotland’s successes.
MacLeod’s 175 against Canada was the 19th highest score in all one-day internationals and enough to clinch a trial with Durham in April for the man who was released by Warwickshire three years ago.
“Calum has worked so hard,” said Coetzer. “He went through a really tough time in his career but he has turned himself into an exceptional batsman.
“At times he can be impossible to bowl at with the range of strokes he has.”
Meanwhile, Scotland’s qualification should rescue a summer fixture schedule which would have been threadbare in the extreme.
Aside from a one-off one-day international against England in May, there was little prospect of meaningful action for the senior side. Now, though, it is likely several Test-playing nations or their A teams will provide opposition during the season.