Coetzer: 'Our guys have been outstanding'

Scotland captain Kyle Coetzer spoke eloquently of his team’s pain at departing what has overall been a hugely impressive tournament for his charges.

Coming in to their penultimate match having dropped just a single point all competition – thanks to a tied match against Zimbabwe – two defeats in their final two Super Six matches against Ireland and West Indies have seen Scotland exit the tournament, with Coetzer describing the reversal as “a tough pill to swallow”.

The nature of the defeat will hurt, with Scotland deprived of a final victory-push due to an untimely downpour that left them stranded five runs behind on the DLS rain calculation. “We had the full backing of every Associate nation,” Coetzer said. “Everyone was wanting us to turn over the West Indies. It wasn’t to be.”

"We felt there was enough in the wicket. It was a fresh pitch. The way the tournament has gone, if it’s a fresh pitch the sides have been bowling first. Our boys bowled extremely well up-front and picked up early wickets and credit to the two West Indies batsmen [Marlon Samuels and Evin Lewis] who came in and played brilliantly to see them through that rough period.

"There’s been wickets at the start of every innings in this tournament. There’s a lot of pressure in these moments in the game and they bowled really well up-front."

Overall Coetzer felt his team withstood the pressure of playing with so much at stake. “I couldn’t say any more for our guys, they’ve been absolutely outstanding. There was extreme pressure today, with pretty much the whole world, barring the West Indies, wanting us to turn them over.

“We felt it would have been for the good of the game, to try and make a scene and get ourselves into that World Cup."

“The guys are absolutely gutted and are finding it pretty tough at the moment. It’s not the day we wanted to end the tournament but you look back and it’s five runs. Five runs. There’s something that could have happened there.”