Scotland have shown that they can compete against the best teams in the world but now they want to go and beat one at the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup.
After an opening win over Ireland, Scotland have suffered a narrow loss to the West Indies and then a battling display in defeat to England.
Next up are defending champions New Zealand, battling to stay in the hunt for the semi-finals themselves, with the loser mathematically eliminated in Bristol.
Realistically, it will be tough for either side to overhaul the hosts or the Windies in the race for a top-two spot in the group, but Scotland have more than just a semi-final battle on their minds, knowing that a win over the White Ferns would offer tangible proof of how close they are to the world’s best sides.
All-rounder Megan McColl said: “Playing against England isn't something that we get to do very often, but I personally think on Saturday we went out there and showed how competitive we can be against one of the best teams in the world. Yes, we weren't perfect, but also we definitely put England under pressure in big moments of that game.
“I think this World Cup we are just showing that we can compete. And I think, last World Cup (Scotland’s first ICC Women’s T20 World Cup) we maybe didn't show that to our full extent.
“Now we've grown so much as a squad, we have some of the best domestic players that play in the English comps. So I think we are speaking about it as a squad, we really want to push Scotland out there and show that we deserve to play against the best in the world because we are showing that we can now compete.
“New Zealand again are someone that's ranked above us. They've had some close games in this tournament so far, and we will be eyeing up to compete and hopefully win that game.”
Scotland paid the price for some under-par fielding against England, putting down chances and failing to stop balls on the boundary as the hosts were able to reach 200 batting first.
McColl had given them the perfect start with a fine catch off the bowling of Kirstie Gordon to remove Amy Jones with the very first ball.
But they were not able to keep that up, and McColl admits that they will have to be much better against New Zealand in the field if they are to get back to winning ways.
She added: “Over the two games that we lost, the West Indies and England, I think probably the big thing for us is, our fielding as a group has been really good this tournament, but also we've definitely made maybe easy mistakes that we can clean up.
“The best in the world show that if you can just be clinical in the field, you're probably going to win more games of cricket.
“And so I think for us, like, that's probably, an easy one that we know we can do, making sure our boundary riders are still being really good, off the rope, cutting off twos, because when we play against, these better teams like New Zealand and Sri Lanka, they're going to be better at running. So we have to be on that.”
New Zealand began the defence of their title with narrow losses to the Windies and Sri Lanka before edging out Ireland.
That has left their semi-final hopes hanging by a thread, with youngster Izzy Sharp, one of the stars of the Ireland win, very much aware of the challenge posed by the Scots.
She said: “They're definitely a great side. They put up a great fight against England, and they're much like Ireland, a team that we definitely can't take lightly.
“We've done our scouting, and again, it's just pressure, T20 World Cup, just absorbing it, putting pressure back on them and doing what we know we can do and just playing our best game.”
New Zealand have played all three of their games in Southampton, and will now head to Bristol for this crucial encounter.
And for Sharp, the key will be trying to impose their own game and pile the pressure back on Scotland.
She added: “It's a T20 World Cup. It's one of those things where every game is a different type of pressure, and in T20s, momentum just flips between sides after a few overs.
“I think for us it's just being able to absorb pressure, put pressure back on other teams, which we did nicely in that game against Ireland. So hopefully we can keep doing that.”
Follow the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2026 at https://www.icc-cricket.com/.
