SCOTLAND cricket head coach Shane Burger is hoping it will be third time lucky today as his side prepares to take on Sri Lanka in Edinburgh for the first of two one-day internationals (ODI).
Burger is still waiting for his first win with the Saltires after the weather washed out the first ODI against Afghanistan and then the visitors narrowly won the second in a match shortened by the rain.
A sell-out crowd is expected at the Grange for the visit of the former world champions and Burger hopes they will witness a first Scotland victory of the summer.
He said: “The Afghanistan series was frustrating with the weather intervening on both days. But I’m confident we can get back out there against Sri Lanka and get that first victory under our belts.
“We’ve not had the chance to play much cricket of late as a team so it would have been nice to have had two full competitive matches against Afghanistan. But we’ve moved on from that frustration and will focus all our attention of trying to beat a good Sri Lanka side.
“It’s going to be a great occasion. They’re expecting more than 1000 there today and it will be great to get out and play in front of our fans at the Grange again. I just hope we can put on a good display and get over the line with a victory. And once we get the first one I’m confident this team will go from strength to strength.”
Burger was buoyed by Scotland’s batting in the match against Afghanistan when they made 325 but felt aspects of the team’s fielding let them down.
“If you analyse that game to look at how we could have done better, it would be the opportunities that we let slip in the field,” said the South African.
“We missed a couple of catches and there was also a run-out opportunity and taking those would have set Afghanistan further back in the Duckworth Lewis calculation. These are small margins but big moments in games and if you take them the rub of the green goes your way.
“But we still played an excellent brand of cricket against a top-10 nation. It was a very mature batting innings with Crossy [Matthew Cross] and the skipper [Kyle Coetzer] getting through a tough opening to keep their wickets intact which allowed us to attack later on.
“We scored 188 runs in the last 20 over which is a phenomenal effort from the guys. We’ve got some really big hitters and dangerous hitters at the back of the line-up. And if you give them that platform to perform later in games, you’ll end up winning more than you lose”
Burger has been dealt a blow with leading batsman Richie Berrington missing out after breaking his finger just hours after making 170 not out for Western Warriors.
He added: “Richie batted extremely well and then when he was fielding he dived for a ball and fractured his finger. That’s disappointing for him and the team as he’s a hard man to replace. But it offers an opportunity for someone else to come in and take their chance.”
Sri Lanka are in Scotland ahead of the World Cup that starts in England later this month and Burger hopes they will play their strongest team including fiery fast bowler Lasith Malinga.
He added: “We’re expecting a tough battle as they’ve got some campaigners in there who have been at the top level for a while. We hope they put out their strongest team as we want to be tested against their best XI. Sri Lanka has a proud history of white ball cricket and they’ll be wanting to go into the World Cup in good form so I’m sure they’re going to be up for it.”
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