T20 World Cup: Scotland 'have skills' and 'belief' to shock New Zealand - captain Kyle Coetzer
- Published
Kyle Coetzer was bowled out for 10 as Scotland lost to Afghanistan by 130 runs
Men's T20 World Cup: New Zealand v Scotland | |
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Venue: Dubai International Cricket Stadium, Dubai Date: Wednesday, 03 November Time: 10:00 GMT | |
Coverage: Commentary on every game on BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra. Text commentary, in-play clips and video highlights on BBC Sport website and app |
Captain Kyle Coetzer retains the belief Scotland "have the skills" to beat the top cricketing nations, despite two defeats at the Men's T20 World Cup.
The Saltires face New Zealand on Wednesday sitting bottom Group 2 of the Super 12 after losing to Afghanistan and Namibia.
Difficult contests against India and group leaders Pakistan then follow.
"We have to continue to believe that we're capable of winning those games," Coetzer told BBC Scotland.
He added: "It's not that we're not capable. It's not that we don't have the skills. It's dealing with the emotions and the pressure that comes with these tournaments and being able to make decisions for long periods of time."
The manner of Scotland's opening losses came as a particular blow considering their form had been so promising in their warm-up series of games.
"We had played some high-profile games leading up to this - and had won 10 out of 11 games or something - so we were in a pretty good place," Coetzer said.
"We had beaten three full members in the last few weeks - Zimbabwe, Ireland and Bangladesh. Considering we hadn't played any cricket in the last year and a half, that was not a bad effort."
Coetzer says the opening losses were "tough to take" but showed "the bar has been pushed up again" and "we need to raise our game that bit more".
"The guys are still really positive and trained really well the last couple of days and are desperate to perform as best we possibly can in these remaining games, starting with New Zealand," he said.
"The shorter the format, the closer the margins become and we appreciate that, when we play sides ranked higher than us, if we perform really well on the day and a couple of things go your way, you can come away with a victory against sides people don't expect you to beat."
New Zealand are third in Group 2 after losing to Pakistan, but then beating India - and Coetzer thinks Scotland have to "back their abilities" and put their opponents "on the back foot".
"We know it is going to be a tough challenge against New Zealand," he added. "They are a fantastic side."
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