NRR came into play when we hit the drinks break: Brandon McMullen | ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, 2024

After chasing down a target of 151 in just 13.1 overs against Oman in Antigua, Scotland have put themselves in a position from where they can qualify for the Super 8s. Scotland are currently leading with five points in three games, and if they win their next encounter against Australia, which is a big IF, they’ll qualify for the next round.

However, in case they lose, they’ll have to depend on how England do in their remaining games and that’s where Scotland completing the chase in record time against Oman is gonna help them. After the win against Oman, their net run rate (NRR) soared to a high of +2.164. 

Even if England win their remaining two games (against Namibia and Oman) by huge margins, there’s a big gap between their current NRR (-1.800) and Scotland’s NRR that they’ll have to fill. Moreover, they’ll have to hope that Australians defeat Scotland by a huge margin so that their NRR is also dented. 

This win has opened up so many scenarios for Scotland but this is not something they were thinking about throughout the match. Brandon McMullen, who smashed 61* off 31 deliveries, said they started thinking about finishing the game as soon as possible after the 10-over in the second innings. By then the game was already in Scotland’s favour.

“I wouldn’t say it all went through my mind at once we just controlled all we could out there and priority was to win the game and get the two points. The net run rate came into play maybe when we hit the drinks break at 10 overs. We thought about it then and then had a good crack at it to try and boost our table and net run rate on the table,” said McMullen.

Scotland have now won all their five T20Is against Oman. “I don’t know we speak about that as a team having those head-to-head games being up or down or tied, we just take that one game at a time play what’s in front of us and go from there.”

In the run chase, George Munsey too smashed 41 off 20 deliveries, while the likes of Michael Jones, Richie Berrington and Matthew Cross also chipped in with nice little cameos. “The wind definitely played a massive role in the second innings. 

“The wicket was really good. It did start to spin towards the back end. The slower they bowled, so it got a bit tricky out there, but with the wind, that strong breeze, it became a really short boundary, and we capitalized on those opportunities, both with George Munsey obviously being a left-hander. He targeted that side, and then myself as well.”

Scotland’s final group game is against Australia in St Lucia and McMullen wants his team to get used to the conditions first, and then take it from there. “We’re just going to have to be the quickest team to adapt when we get there and assess out the conditions first, and then just go and play our brand of cricket. We’ve taken a lot of confidence into that Australia game but one day at a time we’ll cross that bridge when we get there.”

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