T20 World Cup 2024: England make Super 8s after Australia beat Scotland – BBC Sport

The presence of more of the International Cricket Council’s associate members has unquestionably added to this World Cup, and Scotland have typified that throughout their campaign in the Caribbean.

They had a real shot of an upset against England in their tournament opener before the rain arrived, and then cruised past both Namibia and Oman in impressive run chases.

In McMullen, they have a special talent at number three. The South Africa-born right-hander relished the challenge of facing some of the game’s leading bowlers, and cleared the boundary almost at will, scoring all around the ground.

One imagines a franchise deal or a county gig will follow for the 24-year-old in the not-too-distant future.

Scotland rarely play against the ICC’s full members but when they do, they consistently show they can compete at the top level.

They welcome Australia to Edinburgh for three T20s in September, and will hope recent performances lead to more opportunities against cricket’s big hitters.

Scotland captain Richie Berrington: “We were in a pretty good position. It was obviously a good wicket tonight, the guys gave us a great platform in the first 10-12 overs. We didn’t manage to capitalise on it in the back end.

“It was a really good start. Unfortunately we didn’t manage to execute for long enough. They have great ball strikers all the way through the team and a few big overs in the back end got them back into the game and made it hard to pull back.

“The guys can hold their heads high in terms of how they’ve played their cricket throughout this tournament. It was a fantastic knock from Travis Head, and Stoinis played a few good shots.

“It’s great learning for us, great experience for the guys. We’re disappointed because we were in a position where we could win.”

Australia captain Mitchell Marsh: “Scotland are a really good outfit, they’ve improved a hell of a lot over the last few years. We’ve got a lot of respect for them, they took it down to the wire and it was a good chase in the end.

“We spoke as a group around staying really consistent with how we want to play. Tonight, there was less pressure on us as a team but whenever we’ve been challenged, it brings the best out of us. We were pushed right to the end there and a bit of experience came through.

“The World Cup starts again now. We’ve got a lot of trust in our group that we can keep winning games of cricket. T20 is a hard format, you can be slightly off and lose to anyone – as we almost saw today.”