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World T20 2021 Inspired By Heartbreaks Scotland Have Belief To Correct Grim World Cup History

World T20 2021 | Inspired by heartbreaks, Scotland have 'belief' to correct grim world cup history

When Scotland debut at the world stage in the World Cup, some of the great captains of the modern era such as Sourav Ganguly, Ricky Ponting and MS Dhoni had not even started. The year was 1999 and the Scotts were making their World Cup debut in England.

Fast forward to 2021, they have just one win in the World Cup to show against their long history and rather have had an uninspiring history to be boastful about.

The solitary win came over Hong Kong, the side that came onto the world stage far later after them in the 2016 edition of the ICC World T20. However, instead of starting off their journey on a fresh note after that win, their journey went into a tailspin and they suffered massive heartbreak in the form of knocking out of the contention for the next ODI World Cup in England.

Scotland’s road to World Cup

There was no end to their misery and they were on the brink of another missed opportunity for the World Cup in the ICC World Cup Qualifying event in 2019. They suffered a stunning defeat at the hands of Singapore, a newbie compared to their age in international cricket and two losses against the Netherlands, Namibia had put a big question mark over their belonging to the top level.

From being a firm favourite to qualify from their group—Group A, they slipped to fourth on the points table and had to take a far more competitive route to ensure they did not miss the other bus to a World Cup event.

Now, having a long history but not without significant achievement they would be proud of, Scotland are banking on something else— “belief”, to come with stronger force in the T20 World Cup starting Monday, October 18.

“We have skills throughout with bat, ball and in the field but I think our biggest strength is our belief,” their most prominent star and captain Kyle Coetzer said. “As a team, as a country, we really believe now that we are capable of playing on the world stage and in World Cups, so our main strength as team is belief.”

Scotland’s big players

Kyle Coetzer

Scotland’s skipper Coetzer made his World Cup debut in the 2009 edition of the ICC World T20 and did not appear too fussed about the enormity of the occasion and the event. He announced his arrival with a solid 32-ball 42 against a very strong South Africa and followed it up with a swashbuckling 15-ball 33 against the hosts England.

It was Coetjer only who kept the “belief” alive in the Scottish side as they ran closer to defeating the eventual runners up New Zealand and Afghanistan in the 2015 ICC ODI World Cup. He smashed a magnificent 134-ball 156 against a Bangladesh side who were strong enough to knock Eoin Morgan’s England out of the tournament.

Scotland are starting their World T20 2021 campaign against Bangladesh and there is no doubt about who will be the biggest player to watch out for in the contest against the Bangla Tigers.

Calum MacLeod

A sublime innings of 157 runs against an Afghanistan bowling attack comprising of Rashid Khan and other impressive Afghan pacers in the World Cup qualifier tournament in 2018 and a 94-ball 140 against an England bowling attack comprising of Mark Wood, Liam Plunkett, David Willey and Adil Rashid establish the batting credentials of Calum MacLeod.

Both Rashids (Adil and Khan) are known champion leg spinners on the world stage and his side will have high hopes of him in the upcoming tournament conspiring a lot of their matches will be played on pitches conducive to spin bowling.

MacLeod is a fluent stroke maker and would love the pace and bounce on the pitches in Dubai and Scotland’s batting performances hinge heavily on the shoulders of MacLeod and Coetjer.

How far can they go?

Scotland have their task cut out in order to qualify to the super 12 of the tournament. Bangladesh are the firm favourites to be the first team to qualify and that leaves Scotland to face must-win games against Papua New Guinea, who too are not short of “belief”, and Oman.

Scotland had defected both these sides in a bid to qualify for the event, but not before the matches went down the wire and the Scottish skipper will have to urger his troops to be on their toes from the first game against Bangladesh itself.

Anything can happen in the game of cricket, especially in this format, but Scotland are the second most likely side to get over the line and into the main draw of the tournament.

Scotland squad

Kyle Coetzer (captain), Richard Berrington, Dylan Budge, Matthew Cross (wk), Josh Davey, Ally Evans, Chris Greaves, Michael Leask, Calum Macleod, George Munsey, Safyaan Sharif, Hamza Tahir, Craig Wallace, Mark Watt, Brad Wheal.

Reserves: Michael Jones, Chris Sole.

Scotland fixtures

17 Oct - against Bangladesh

19 Oct - against Papua New Guinea

21 Oct - against Oman

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World T20 2021 | Everything you need to know about the biggest T20 spectacle on earth

The T20 World Cup is here and the fact that it is starting just after the end of a heart-pumping season of the Indian Premier League 2021 might have taken the buzz away from its start. But if cricket fans were thinking their life was going to feel empty and they were to have withdrawal symptoms of the T20 bonanza after the IPL, there is nothing to worry about as yet another month-long roller coaster ride is loading in form of the ICC T20 World Cup 2021. But where doe it all begin? Round 1- The qualification The tournament begins with a qualifying round or round one as it is called were eight teams, six of which came after a gruelling qualification tournament in 2019 and two on the basis of being the lowest-ranked teams in the top 10 of the ICC T20I rankings at the time of the qualification window. Thus the eight teams participating in the first round are Bangladesh and Sri Lanka from the top 10 and Ireland, Papua New Guinea, the Netherlands, Scotland, Namibia and Oman. These eight teams have been divided into two groups of four each named Group A and Group B. While Group A has Bangladesh, Scotland, PNG and Oman in it, Group B has Sri Lanka, Ireland, Netherlands and Namibia. The matches of Group A will take place at Al Amrat Stadium in Muscat, Oman while Group B matches will take place at Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi, UAE. But were UAE and Oman the hosts of this World Cup? World T20 2021 Hosts No, UAE and Oman are not the hosts of the ICC T20 World Cup 2021, rather it was India. Actually, the 2021 World Cup was supposed to happen after the 2020 World Cup in Australia, but due to the pandemic it was postponed and India, who had to host the 2021 T20 World Cup, got the hosting rights of the next event. Now the 2020 T20 World cup will take place in 2022. But as soon as India got the hosting rights of the next World Cup, a belligerent wave of the Covid-19 struck the country and lakhs of lives were lost It led to the IPL 2021 being hated midway and postponed to UAE, which was completed just now. To avoid any such circumstances where the country would have to halt the World Cup, the Board of Control for Cricket in India opted for UAE and Oman as the two venues of the World Cup while keeping the hosting rights with themselves. With this, another issue of tax exceptions, that ICC was asking BCCI to seek from the Indian government for the World Cup was also avoided, although the board would now have to share the revenue with Oman Cricket and Emirates Cricket Board. What after Round 1? The top two teams from both Group A and B would qualify for the next round called the Super 12. The top eight ranked T20I teams, which are part of this World Cup will join the four Round 1 qualifiers in the Super 12. The eight teams have already been divided into two groups each and slots have been identified for four qualifiers as well. Group 1 has Australia, England, South Africa and defending champions West Indies in it and will accommodate the winner of Group B and runner up of Group A. Group 2 n the other and have hosts India, its arch-rivals Pakistan, their neighbours Afghanistan and World Test Championship winners New Zealand. This group will accommodate winners of Gropu A which might be Bangladesh and runners of Group B. Thus it makes up for an almost all-Asian group in many senses. After the Super 12, the top two teams from each group will advance for Semi-Finals. The matches of the Super 12 stage will be played in Dubai and Sharjah along with Abu Dhabi, which is used for the Round 1 games as well. What happens when two teams are tied at same points? In the case of tied games, the matches regardless of their stage in the tournament will have continuous super overs until and unless a winner is decided. In case of bad weather in tied games, each team will receive one point each. In case two teams are tied at the same number of points, net run rate, number of wins and losses and then further win and losses against each other would decide the winner among them. Even after this, a winner is not decided, the net run rate of both the teams before they clashed with each other will be checked, even if that is tied then their rankings before the World Cup would be the detrimental factor. There is also a provision of Decision Review System in this edition of the Wold Cup and each team will have two reviews per inning. Where can the world watch the World Cup? The ICC released a list of broadcasters of the tournament all across the world. According to it, Star Sports and its digital wing Disney Hotstar will have exclusive broadcast and live stream rights for the tournament in India. Star Sports Network will also have broadcast rights in Nepal, Bhutan, Maldives and Sri Lanka. In Pakistan, PTV Sports and Asports will broadcast the tournament while people can also follow the live streaming on Daraz App and its website. In Bangladesh, G-TV, T-Sports and BTV have broadcast rights while live streaming will be available on Rabbithole, Bioscope and MyGP. In Afghanistan, national broadcaster RTA Sports and private channel Ariana TV will broadcast the biggest T20 tournament in the world. In major cricketing nations such as Australia, England, New Zealand South Africa, Fox Cricket, Sky Cricket, Sky Sport 3 and SuperSport Cricket will respectively broadcast the World Cup. In West Indies, ESPN has both the broadcast as well as digital rights of the tournament. In the USA and Canada market, Willow will broadcast the cricket games while in Papua New Guinea and other pacific island nations, TVWAN Action has the broadcast rights. What's the prize money? The winner of the T20 World Cup 2021 will get a whopping $1.6 Million while the Runners-Up will get $800,00. The two losing semi-finalists will get $400,00 each while the rest of the eight members making it to the Super 12 will get $70,000 each. The four teams unable to make it past Round 1 will get $40,000 each. Apart from per team prizes, there are also prizes for wins at Round 1 and Super 12 stages. Each win at Round 1 and Super 12 will fetch a team $40,000. In total, the ICC will be spending an amount equal to $5.6 Million in prize money. When does the madness begin? The extravaganza will begin with the Round 1 games on October 17 when Oman will take on Papua New Guinea in the Cup opener at the Al Amrat Ground. On the very same day, Bangladesh will play Scotland at the same venue. The Super 12 round will begin on October 23 where Australia will clash with South Africa at Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi in the day game while last edition’s finalists England and West Indies will go head to head in the evening match at Dubai International Stadium. The hosts India will open its campaign against arch-rivals Pakistan at the Dubai International Stadium on October 24.

Mark Wood expects 'fire' from returning Tymal Mills, eager to forge Archer-like partnership with him

England pacer Mark Wood is building high hopes on partnership with the left-arm seamer Tymal Mills, who is returning to the international stage in England colours after a long gap of four years. Mills has been included in the England squad for the T20 World Cup and Wood expects him to bring some “fire” in order to not allow the skipper Eoin Morgan to miss Jofra Archer. He is looking forward to forging a deadly combination with Mills, something on the line of what he developed with Archer when England had emerged as the champions of the ICC ODI World Cup in 2019. "We're all competing for places here because there's only a certain amount of seamers that can play, but I don't feel like me and 'T' are in direct competition. We're all part of a squad here that's trying to win the World Cup, so we'll all be desperately trying to do that,” Wood said from Oman where England are staying before starting their campaign against the defending champions West Indies. "It worked for me and Jofra, so me and T might have to keep it going," Wood said. "He's looked sharp in the nets, and to watch him, I certainly wouldn't want to face him. He's looking the business at the minute so hopefully, he can bring some fire and I'll have to up my game as well." However, Wood was not ignorant of the challenges that England and the pace attack will be dealing with on different sets of grounds and pitches to be used in the tournament. He pointed out the different set of playing conditions at the grounds in the UAE and Oman and underlined the supporting role to the spinners he and his fellow pacers will have to fulfil in the tournament. He also highlighted the amount of preparation and ideas his teammates would have had playing on similar pitches in the Indian Premier League which could be beneficial for their success in the tournament. "(Conditions in UAE) put extra pressure on us to deliver, so we'll have to be up for the challenge," Wood said. "We do keep an eye on the pitches there, and it's not just the wickets, it's the dimensions - the field in Sharjah is quite small, Abu Dhabi is obviously wide. But it's good that we get a heads-up [through the IPL]. "My contribution might not just be in the wickets column. If it is a spinner's track, my role might be to keep it down as much as I can and then the spinners can attack from the other end. The thing you have to do is adapt within the game anyway." Wood will have to step up with the pace and accuracy as England are without the star duo of Archer and Ben Stokes. They have a potent attack to challenge teams in the conditions of the UAE and Oman and most certainly, Wood will have to rise to the occasion with a big heart and consistent performances.

KKR Coach Brendon McCullum pins blame of batting collapses on Eoin Morgan-led middle order

The Kolkata Knight Riders were sailing through till in halfway mark in the pursuit of 193 runs to win their third IPL title against the Chennai Super Kings till they started to implode once again. The opening pair of Venkatesh Iyer and Shubman Gill had put up a commanding partnership of 91 runs inside 11 overs but the Knight Riders lipped quickly to 108/4 in the span of 16 balls to lose their grip on the momentum and subsequently lost the game by 27 runs. They had a similar horrible batting collapse in the second qualifier against the Delhi Capitals when they had dragged a seamless chase of 13 runs from the last 24 balls to a dire situation where Rahul Tripathi had to hit a six on the penultimate ball to win them the game. Eoin Morgan had assured dissection of the collapse in the final four overs against the Capitals but little did it do their fortune as the skipper himself was the weakest link of the batting unit. It was being narrated that the dominance by the top order batsmen and spin bowlers on spin-friendly pitches in Sharjah led to their arrival while the middle order was plaguing their growth. The coach Brendon McCullum agreed with the “fair assessment” and said that the middle order comprising of the skipper Morgan, Dinesh Karthik would be the first one to admit their failures in the competition. He said that the middle-order could not bring impact to the table and hence the Knight Riders were always without all bases covered which were exposed on the night of the final. "Yeah I think that's a fair assessment," McCullum said when he was asked about the role of middle-order in KKR’s struggle this season. "I think our bowling group did a really good job. We fielded well, and our top-order batting was superb. But unfortunately, we weren't quite able to get the real impact through our middle-order players… You know there's a lot of experience there, they're the first ones to admit they didn't have the greatest of tournaments. That can happen at times, it wasn't for a lack of trying, that's for sure. The guys certainly invested, they put the work in, it just wasn't necessarily their tournament. That was just unfortunate, that it kind of happened amongst all of the middle order. But that can happen sometimes.” However, he was not too unsatisfied with the overall situation and chose to see the positives out of a remarkable comeback by the team after their horrible first phase of the tournament.

Coach Brendon McCullum heaps praise on Indian top-order batsmen for scripting KKR's turnaround

The Kolkata Knight Riders were almost down and out of the 14th edition of the Indian Premier League before the Covid-19 crisis in their camp and subsequent outbreak in other camps led to the postponement of the tournament midway through. They had won only two games out of the seven played till that point before the break “came at a really good time” for them. Their coach Brendon McCullum conceded that they were pushed against the wall before the break which allowed them some time to figure out the best way to go forward and “smooth out a couple of rough edges”. "The break probably came at a really good time for us to be honest," McCullum said at the post-match press conference. "It can be hard in a tournament such as the IPL to be able to keep your composure when results are going against you. Where we sat after seven games, with only two wins, it was pretty disappointing. So the break came at a good time. During that time, we had some conversations right throughout the few months in between with some guys and just tried to smooth out a couple of rough edges. At the start of the second leg of the tournament in the UAE, the Knight Riders need a bit of luck and a lot of sparks, especially from the batting unit to turn things around. The spark came in the form of a dominating top order that lit up the stage with the emergence of players such as Venkatesh Iyer and established players at the IPL level coming back to their best. The opening pair of Shubman Gill and Iyer put the bowling attack of opposition under enormous pressure and the coach McCullum made reservations about the fact that it led to their turnaround in the second phase of the tournament. He commenced the quartet of Iyer, Gill, Nitish Rana and Rahul Tripathi for batting with all their guts and conceded his loss of words in their appreciation. "I always felt that our intent needed to increase to be able to put pressure back on the opposition. I cannot talk highly enough of our top four Indian batters in particular for what they were able to achieve in the second half of the competition. It takes guts to play the way that they did and it takes courage to change the method and to trust the method that us as coaches were asking them to play, which was a more up-tempo game. But they were absolutely fantastic, and were such a massive reason why we were a huge chance in this competition, why we made it as well as what we had. So we've certainly got something to work with there, moving forward,” McCulumm conceded. The Knight Riders suffered their first defeat in an IPL final after winning the first two games on the big stage. Their unbeatne record in the IPL final was tarnished by the Chennai Super Kings who were a better and more clinical side than them on the night of the final and throughout the tournament.