"Really exciting to see some new faces": England's Nat Sciver-Brunt lauds Scotland for T20 WC qualification

The ICC Women's T20 World Cup Global Qualifier 2024 witnessed a historic moment as Scotland defeated Ireland by eight wickets in the tournament semi-finals to earn a place at this year's main event in Bangladesh at the start of October, following years of close misses.

Despite competing in prior Qualifier tournaments in 2015, 2018, 2019, and 2022, Scotland had never advanced past the preliminary rounds.

However, in this edition, they finally broke through, with skipper Kathryn Bryce leading the way with outstanding performances throughout the competition. Sciver-Brunt, England's cricket star who shared a dressing room with Kathryn and Sarah Bryce at The Blaze during the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy, expressed her delight and pleasure at the Scottish players' success.

"Really chuffed for them. I love stories like that. Teams battling it out to get to a stage where they haven't been before and it is really exciting to see some new faces around the competition," Sciver-Brunt said as quoted by ICC.

"We'll look forward to playing against them. Three or four of them have got a really good experience of cricket in England, but also in tournaments worldwide. So yeah, not to be taken lightly and exciting," she added.

Scotland performed admirably at the Qualifier tournament, losing only to Sri Lanka in the group stage and final. In Group A, they dominated Uganda, the United States, and Thailand, winning convincingly and advancing to the semi-finals with six points.

Despite being considered underdogs in the semi-final against Ireland, captain Kathryn Bryce led the assault with a spectacular opening spell that included four wickets in short succession.

Bryce then demonstrated her batting skills by producing a calm, unbeaten 35 runs, including the winning runs, to propel Scotland to the final and qualify for the Women's T20 World Cup 2024 in Bangladesh later this year.

They were without their captain for the final against Sri Lanka, and a spectacular century from Chamari Athapaththu prevented Scotland from winning the Qualifier Trophy. (ANI)