“I’m extremely proud of this group, where we’ve got to and where we are at the moment”
“Look, the experience is everything for our group of players and our organisation,” Coetzer said at the post-match press conference. “Obviously, today’s result didn’t go the way we wanted, but we have to go through days like today to see the better days later on further down the road.
“It was very important for our guys to experience that, see the high class that was on show today from the Indian team. We were certainly not at the races ourselves, but I think they forced us to not be at the races with the skills that they put on show, so that was high-class execution from India today.
“I’m still extremely proud of the guys, but we’ve got a lot of learning to do, and we have to go through days like this to improve.”
Coetzer conceded that Scotland were outplayed and that they didn’t have answers to India’s bowling attack in particular. Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami were accurate with their yorkers while the spin trio of Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin and Varun Chakravarthy thrived with their variations, as Scotland were rolled over for 85 in 17.4 overs. In reply, India knocked off the target in just 6.3 overs, giving their net run rate a big leg-up.
“Yeah, you stack up the number of games some of those players in that team have played in comparison to what we have in T20 cricket, as well as stacking them up against playing in these conditions and using the skills on show that they showed today… we were going to be up against it,” Coetzer said. “They showed how to use the surface. They showed how to bowl, execute their yorkers. Their spinners had variations, plenty of mystery about some of their bowlers.
“When you face stuff like that for the very first time, which we did today, it was always going to be hard. Not to say that I don’t back every one of our players, because I really do. I think we’ve got a fantastic group of players, and we’ll just go from strength to strength after this.”
Scotland will face Pakistan – one of the two unbeaten sides in the tournament; England being the other – in Sharjah on Sunday before heading back home. Coetzer said they were looking forward to having a crack at Pakistan and ending the tournament on a positive note.
“We’re going to go into that game full of confidence as we possibly can,” he said. “We took a few heavy punches today, that’s for sure, and the guys will be hurting, but we need to pick ourselves up and be prepared to put on a show in our last game.
“It’s our last opportunity for a little while to play a game of cricket together. It’s been a good seven weeks or so as a group, and we’re extremely proud of what we’ve achieved. A few doors left open that we didn’t quite go through, I think, but that’s for us to deal with when we go home, and we have to deal with that and be willing to improve.
“We know where the bar is, like I keep saying, and that’s where we need to get to. It’s an eye-opener at some stages, but I’m extremely proud of this group, where we’ve got to and where we are at the moment, and where we’re going to go to.”
Deivarayan Muthu is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo