Kyle Coetzer believes Scotland’s tour to the Gold Coast provided perfect preparation for this week’s tests against Papua New Guinea.
The Scots face the Pacific Islanders in a four-day Intercontinental Cup encounter in Port Moresby starting today (Sun) before facing the same opponents in two crucial World Cricket League fixtures on Friday and next Sunday.
And spirits could hardly be higher following two excellent victories over the Auckland Aces in Queensland last week.
All-rounder Richie Berrington was the star of the show with a century in the first match and four wickets in the next but skipper Coetzer is convinced the entire squad have taken benefit from the trip.
He said: “We’ve settled in Port Moresby during the last day or two and everyone is ready for the competitive action to start.
“Beating a strong Auckland side has really boosted the confidence and we’re looking forward to getting into the series against Papua New Guinea.
“Although conditions here are new to us all, we have played Papua New Guinea before and we know they are going to be tough opponents.”
While Scotland’s hopes of winning the I-Cup for only the second time are already over, having been undermined by indifferent form and even more indifferent weather, Coetzer knows a good showing in the four-day match will provide a psychological boost ahead of the vital one-day internationals.
The Scots are much better placed in that competition, lying third in the eight-team table and knowing that two wins would not only see them leapfrog PNG, but also take them to the top, albeit having played two games more than current leaders the Netherlands.
Since the top four will progress to next year’s qualifying tournament for the 2019 World Cup along with the four lowest ranked Full Members, the importance of the WCL fixtures cannot be underestimated.
Coetzer added: “We know what’s at stake and are determined to get to the qualifier because that would give us a crack at some of the Test-playing countries and then hopefully onto the World Cup itself.
“That is the level we want to be playing at so qualifying for the big tournaments is vital for us as players and for Scottish cricket as a whole.”
Forfarshire bowler Scott Cameron is likely to join the squad on Monday following the withdrawal through injury of Somerset all-rounder Josh Davey while Sussex fast bowler will arrive in Port Moresby later today and is likely to feature in the WCL fixtures.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here