Matthew Cross: ‘We’ve got four games, and we’ve got to win four games’

In the last two editions of the T20 World Cup, Scotland have had to start off in a preliminary group stage with the aim of qualifying for the Super 12s, where the more established nations entered the competition. They won all three of their first-round games in 2021, including victory over Bangladesh, to progress but failed to make it through in 2022, despite beating West Indies for the first time in a full international.

This time, having won six from six at last summer’s ICC Europe Region Qualifier to confirm their place in the Caribbean, they will take on England, Australia, Namibia and Oman for a spot in the last eight, with wicketkeeper Cross targeting “a good opportunity” for Scotland to once again upset the odds.

“The opportunity is greater because we get to play two of the top teams, any which group you end up in,” he said. “So, that’s not always guaranteed. And I think the cut-throat Associate world means that it’s a scrap to get through from the qualifier. You know, we had it hard with getting so close two years ago. But I think it works both ways. I think it’s nice to have four games, three games feels really quick and you’re on the flight home potentially before you even know it. So, I do quite like the new format and I think there’s a good opportunity for a team that plays well enough to progress.

“Look we’ve got four games and we’ve got to win four games, I think there’s nothing too complicated about it. They’re all teams – well, I was going to say they’re all teams we’ve beaten – we’ve not beaten Australia, but we’ve beaten three of the four teams so three out of four wins is going to be good enough to take us through. But we’ve got to take each day as it comes and we’ve got to earn the right to win these games.”

Asked how Scotland planned to beat England, Cross said: “Score more runs than them. I think with T20 cricket, you know everyone’s got to be there, they’ve got to be at it but it kind of takes one or two individuals to have their best day and I think that’s sort of the message we send – expect to have your best day and I think if you have your best day, we’re going to be pretty close to winning a game and that seems to be the way T20 cricket goes. It becomes an individual having a really good day or a collective team effort.”

“It’s a really exciting opportunity for us as an Associate nation to get to play England,” he said. “Although we’re very close to England we don’t seem to play them very often but we’ve got great memories from the last time we played them, so to get to play them at a World Cup is pretty special.

“I’m waiting for the invitation to Lord’s to go and play them, so hopefully on the back of this maybe we’ll get one but, look, it’s an awesome opportunity for our guys and really a chance for us to go out and show what we’re all about.”

“I think it’s going to be who adapts quickest. It’ll be a day-game tomorrow so the pitch will play differently, I’m sure. It’ll just be about who can adapt the quickest and find the best way to score runs. It might be a bit more attritional cricket in terms of it looked a bit lower and a bit slower, but I think we’ve been preparing for that. A lot of the Caribbean wickets have been quite similar, so I think we’re ready to go.”