Darcey Carter expressed pride in Scotland's ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2026 performances, despite her side's semi-final hopes being ended with a six-wicket loss to New Zealand.
Carter scored 72 not out as Scotland posted 131 for seven, but it was not enough as the White Ferns chased the total down with 10 balls remaining.
The defeat made it three losses in a row for Kathryn Bryce’s side after victory over Ireland in their opener, meaning they can no longer advance out of the group.
“I think first and foremost, we're quite proud of how we've held ourselves and how we're really giving a good competition to these big teams,” Carter said.
“There's probably a bit of disappointment that we haven't finished the games as well as we would have liked. But to be able to set up the games in that position is obviously something we didn't do when we played in the World Cup last time.
“So, although we're not getting the results we may want, the improvement from the past two years is pretty clear.”
Carter did the bulk of the scoring in the powerplay, which Scotland ended at 45 for no loss before her opening partner, Katherine Fraser, departed for seven,
Her half-century, Carter’s second in three games, came in the 14th over, but as the drinks break came, she showed signs of struggling with the extreme heat.
New Zealand captain Amelia Kerr then produced a double-wicket maiden as Scotland slipped to 121 for seven.
Carter and Rachel Slater took 10 off the final to set New Zealand a manageable 132 to win.
After an early wobble where Kathryn Bryce picked up two wickets, Izzy Sharp and Brooke Halliday put on a century stand that ended with the White Ferns five runs from victory.
The reigning champions eventually got home with 10 balls to spare in a vital win for their title defence chances.
At 11th in the T20I rankings, Scotland remain an associate ICC member, meaning opportunities to play against the world’s best sides are few and far between.
Tuesday’s game was their first international meeting in any format with New Zealand, and they have yet to face Australia or India in a T20I.
They have now played England twice and South Africa once, with those matches coming at T20 World Cups, with Scotland making a winless debut in the tournament two years ago.
“I think we obviously don't play as much cricket as we would like,” Carter said. “Coming into these tournaments, it's quite difficult to go straight up against the best opposition without much practice against high-ranked teams.
“I think our main goal would probably be to get more cricket in against better-ranked teams and gain more experience. Then, when we come on the world stage where there's lots of pressure, we can deal with that a bit better.
“We're still quite a young team. Not a lot of us have played a lot of international cricket. Some of these teams we're playing against obviously have really talented and experienced players. The more cricket we play, the better we'll get.”
Personally, it has been quite the tournament for Carter. A tally of 174 runs took her to the top of the World Cup scoring charts.
“I'm just quite pleased that I've managed to put on some good scores,” Carter added.
“I probably didn't get as many runs as I would have liked at the last World Cup, and actually just taking a bit of ownership for this team and trying to put us in the best positions possible is really what matters to me most.”
Follow the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2026 at https://www.icc-cricket.com/.
