Scotland cricket head coach Shane Burger believes they were “outclassed” in their 72-run defeat to Pakistan, which ends their T20 World Cup.
After bowling well at the start of the Pakistan innings, Scotland let the game get away from them and ultimately 190 was too much for them to chase.
Scotland finished bottom of their Super 12 group after five defeats but have shown flashes of their true capabilities.
It was Burger’s first tournament as head coach, after taking over in 2019, with Scotland’s qualification for the Super 12 ensuring they will go to the next T20 World Cup in Australia in 2022.
“It’s been a wonderful experience and an experience that I think the players will only get better from,” he said. “In terms of the match, the first 10 overs I thought we were brilliant.
“I thought our execution and our planning and our energy just looked like we really belonged and I thought that we were absolutely superb in the way that the bowlers bowled, the way we were fielding there was a real energy and Pakistan were under extreme pressure.
“Then we just lost our way a touch which can happen. Pakistan were able to exert a bit of pressure on us and we had a few moments that if we had grabbed them could have potentially changed the course of the game.
“Then from a batting perspective just couldn’t really find ourselves getting into fourth and fifth gear which you need to when you’re chasing 190. There were far too many dots in the first ten overs and ultimately losing a clump of wickets and being 40-4 is an incredibly tough place to come from to chase 190.
“I thought Richie Berrington was superb, he showed great commitment with the bat, so he was the shining light in terms of batting. But we were just outclassed today and we’ll take a lot of learnings from that.”
To everyone that has taken this ride with us 👏
Thank you.
We are just getting started 👇 pic.twitter.com/vY4EscWxUL
— Cricket Scotland (@CricketScotland) November 7, 2021
Burger believes Scotland will take a huge amount of experience from this tournament, as they seek to build on the impressive foundations they have laid.
“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 its been very successful in many avenues, but we know we need to get better to be able to compete at the highest level.”