Scotland has a cricket history that goes a long way back. But somehow they were not an ICC member till 1992 and did not feature in a World Cup till 1999.
Their journey to the World Cup and through the World Cup has always been a brave one. But luck was not on their side somehow.
To this day, Scotland have played in three ODI World Cups and three T20 World Cups. They played 23 matches in the main round of World Cups.
How many they won? None! As surprising as it might seem, it has been the agony of Scottish cricket. Plenty of efforts, plenty of opportunities went in vain.
You cannot say that they perform badly. They restricted Bangladesh to 185 only in 1999 but lost the game by 22 runs.
They could once again smell victory in 2015, on two occasions to be precise. First against Bangladesh when they accumulated a massive 318. Second against Afghanistan when defending 210, they picked up 6 wickets of the Afghans for 84 runs only.
But then an unbeaten 96 from Samiullah Shenwari and late heroics from Shapoor Zadran denied Scotland the victory.
However, Scotland have 4 wins in World T20s, including 3 this year. They achieved their first win against a test-winning nation in world stages against Bangladesh in Muscat. Yet, a win in the main stages remains untouched.
They will be disappointed considering the fact that they had chances in this year’s T20 World Cup.
They faced certain opponents against whom they could've won. Some opponents who achieved their first-ever win in World Cups against them. Bangladesh in 1999, Afghanistan in 2015 or even Namibia in 2021. Everybody had their moments of victory bar Scotland.
After last night’s defeat against Pakistan, their World T20 2021 journey ended with 3 wins and 5 losses. All the wins came in the qualifiers and the losses in the main stage.
Playing 6 World Cups and 23 matches without a win on the main stage will haunt Scotland in their next campaign too.
