T20 World Cup: Scotland 'champing at the bit' for Papua New Guinea match
- Published
Scotland opened the tournament with a memorable win over Bangladesh on Sunday
ICC Men's T20 World Cup |
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Venue: United Arab Emirates & Oman Dates: 17 October - 14 November |
Coverage: Commentary on every game on BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra. Text commentary, in-play clips and video highlights from 23 October on BBC Sport website and app |
Scotland "have match winners throughout the squad," says all-rounder Michael Leask as his side seek to build on a fantastic opening win over Bangladesh at the T20 World Cup.
The Scots play Papua New Guinea on Tuesday before completing the first round against hosts Oman on Thursday.
The top two sides from the group progress to the Super 12s.
"We're just going day by day, game by game, trying to stay in the moment," said Leask.
"We know Papua New Guinea are going to be a force. We've played them quite a few times and we know the challenges they will bring. Very different to Bangladesh.
"But everyone is champing at the bit, our guys are in a really good headspace. We are so together and on any given day someone in this squad can get big runs or take five wickets.
"We've not talked about topping the group. Everything is fought for so hard in Associate cricket, that's what makes it so special."
Papua New Guinea were hammered by Oman in their opening match and must win to have any chance of progressing.
However, Scotland have had the better of recent meetings, winning two one-day internationals in September and again triumphing in the T20 format 10 days ago.
That was one of four victories from five warm-up matches for the tournament and the momentum carried on against Bangladesh in a surprise six-run success, with Scotland defending 140-9.
"We're just so excited and grateful to be playing again after a year and a bit with no cricket," said Leask, who won his 100th cap on Sunday.
Greaves stars with bat & ball as Scotland beat Bangladesh
"In every game somebody different has put their hand up. We have match-winners throughout the squad.
"Morale is amazing in the group, the way people are handling themselves and the win over Bangladesh shows how far we have come.
"The atmosphere in the stadium on Sunday was amazing. It's not the way we wanted the match to pan out but sometimes you need to play ugly cricket to win.
"We can bat from one to eleven and Chris Greave played an unbelievable knock for us, along with Mark Watt - and the bowlers were phenomenal."
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