Scotland captain Kyle Coetzer was defeated but not downhearted after their 16-run loss to New Zealand at the T20 World Cup.
A starring innings from Martin Guptill with the bat powered New Zealand to 172-5 and while Scotland chipped away at the total, their efforts saw them fall short of another memorable scalp.
The performance was much-improved from the defeats to Namibia and Afghanistan and they now have two games remaining, against India and Pakistan, to leave the tournament on a high.
“After two losses last week it was important for us to put in a performance against a very good side,” said Coetzer.
“If we were able to restrict Guptill earlier in the game that might have changed the game, well it would have changed the game, but we know that they have great strength in depth.
“But for us to go out and put on a bit of a show and show what we are all about and what we are capable of is something to take from today, 17 runs is a reasonable size in T20 cricket, but we will probably look back and see where the small moments were when we could have closed the gap. We have to keep raising our bar.”
“We have got quite a confident bunch of players who strongly believe that we deserve to be here. We have a quietly confident group of Scottish lads who think that we can continue to progress in this tournament. This game has given us a bit more confidence again after we lost it a bit after the two games last week.
“We were unhappy with those performances, but this will instill confidence and we have to keep pushing and believing because we are going to come up against two fantastic sides.
“What a great time to be a Scottish cricketer and fan, the sky is the limit, but we just have to go out there and trust ourselves.”
Scotland were without their leading wicket-taker Josh Davey due to a groin problem, with Ali Evans brought in to the side.
They got off to a superb start, with Safyan Sharif removing Daryl Mitchell and New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson cheaply.
Mark Watt continued his excellent tournament by getting Devon Conway caught behind but the seasoned Guptill, who surpassed 3000 T20 international runs, turned the innings in his side’s favour.
Guptill, allied with Glenn Phillips, was in destructive form as he bludgeoned 93 off 56 deliveries in the sweltering Dubai heat.
Brad Wheal (2-40) removed both in consecutive deliveries and impressive death-bowling kept New Zealand to 173.
Scotland’s run-chase began positively despite the loss of Coetzer, with George Munsey and Matthew Cross keeping the run-rate at eight-an-over. Cross took five fours of one Adam Milne over before Munsey holed out a full-toss from Ish Sodhi to Tim Southee.
But after Cross (27) was clean-bowled by Southee, New Zealand strangled Scotland’s progress and Trent Boult removed Calum Macleod (12) with five overs remaining.
Aberdonian Michael Leask smote 42 off 20 balls to claw Scotland closer at the end but ultimately a spirited effort was in vain.
“I thought Safyaan Sharif and Mark Watt were both excellent and have been throughout the whole tournament so far,” added head coach Shane Burger. “I thought Matthew Cross’s keeping display was top drawer – I don’t think keepers often get a shout out but in this instance I thought his keeping was magnificent.
“Then from a batting point of view, we got off to a really good start and then just lost wickets at crucial times, but I thought the way Michael Leask finished the innings just shows what an impact he can make in this format.”