Scotland captain Craig Wright said his team will learn from their 203-run thrashing at the hands of defending champions Australia in their opening World Cup Group A match.
”I thought there were positives and negatives. For the first 45 overs we competed reasonably well and I am proud of my players,” said Wright, after his team slumped to the second heaviest defeat in World Cup history at Warner Park.
Australia, the two-time defending champions, were inspired by a brilliant 113 from skipper Ricky Ponting as they reached an imposing 334-6 before the Scots were bowled out for 131 in 40.1 overs.
”It was a quick outfield but we had an opportunity to keep them to below 300 which would have been a really commendable achievement,” added Wright.
”But they showed their abilities all down the order, and then the first ten overs of our innings killed us, obviously losing all those wickets,” said Wright, whose team lost half of their batsmen for just 42 by the 16th over.
”We let ourselves down with the bat. There were no significant partnerships and it was a big ask to face a selection of bowlers of a high level like Glenn McGrath.”
McGrath took 3-14 off his six overs to move to within seven wickets of equalling Wasim Akram’s World Cup career record of 55. Wright, who put Australia into bat, said he didn’t regret the decision.
”With the weather conditions as they were overnight, quite humid, some clouds around, I thought it was the right decision and I’d do it again. No regrets.”
Scotland had restricted Australia to 274-5 when Ponting was out, but conceded 50 runs off the last 22 balls with number eight Brad Hogg slamming an unbeaten 15-ball 40 with three sixes and as many boundaries.
Wright said his team knew the big task of facing Australia.
”I think we were realistic about the challenge, world class players and a world class team. We can still take some positives from our performance with the ball and in the field, and Colin Smith with the bat,” said Wright of the wicketkeeper/batsman who top-scored with 51.
The Scotland skipper admitted that letting off Ponting, when he was on 23, was a big turning point.
”A big part of our gameplan was to have keeper up to the stumps, and you can count on one hand the number of catches he has dropped. If you drop a player of Ponting’s class, they get a chance and they make the most of it,” said Wright.
Ponting took full advantage of the dropped catch by Smith, off paceman Dougie Brown, to hit five sixes and nine boundaries during his innings.
Wright said he looks forward to meeting world number one South Africa on March 20.
”To play against that level of opposition is not something we often get the opportunity to do. Hopefully we can raise our game for that.”
South Africa meet The Netherlands in Group A on Friday. The top two teams advance to the next round of Super Eights. – Sapa-AFP