Richie Berrington eyes historic Scotland win

The man who inspired Scotland’s first win against a Test-playing nation says fond memories count for little as they seek to make amends for defeat to Afghanistan in the Cricket World Cup.

Richie Berrington trains ahead of Scotland's next game. Picture: Nick Rougvie

In 2012 Richie Berrington battered a 55-ball century against Bangladesh, the side Scotland face next in New Zealand.

The South African-born all-rounder became the first Associate player and only the seventh overall to hit a ton in a T20 match. That record has now been added to, but Berrington is still one of only 14 players to have achieved the feat.

“Obviously I have great memories. Getting a first win, even if it was in a T20, means I’ve got fond memories of that and it would be great to create some more memories,” said Berrington.

“It’s been a couple of seasons since we last played them so there’s been a few new faces in the Bangladesh team, but we’ve got a lot of footage on these guys so we’ll be well prepared going into the game.”

Scotland’s record at three World Cups remains won none, lost 11. The one-wicket, three-ball defeat last week to Afghanistan was a particularly tough loss to take in Dunedin.

The squad have taken some time to recuperate and take their minds off cricket with a few days on New Zealand’s sunshine coast as they try to figure out how to put in a performance they say is worthy of the team.

The next Pool A match against Bangladesh represents probably Scotland’s last hope of taking a scalp Down Under, with Sri Lanka and Australia to come in the next ten days.

The top order has failed to fire in the first three games, with opening batsman Kyle Coetzer the only one close to performing. He is Scotland’s top scorer at this tournament with 97 runs from his three innings – the vast majority coming in his knock of 71 against England.

Berrington opened his account against New Zealand in Dunedin with a half century but along with his fellow batsman has failed to push on for bigger scores. Totals of eight and 25 followed against England and Afghanistan.

The Scottish batsmen have met and spoken about why they’ve so far been unable to make their mark. Berrington says the experiences will stand them in good stead.

“It’s been really good. We’ve have had a few days just to rest and recover after what was a tough loss against Afghanistan,” he said. “We’ve had a good day’s training and we’ll get one more in before the game.

“Hopefully we can put things right with the bat. We haven’t been at our best and not really managed to put a decent score on the board yet so hopefully coming into this game, with the preparation being good, we can look forward to another good challenge.

“We’ve all had a good chat with each other which I think is important. Obviously this whole thing is a great learning experience for us so we’ve had more of just a catch-up to see what we have learned so far from the last three games that we have played. It’s important that we keep picking things up along the way.”

Bangladesh, despite being the second lowest ranked Test side in the competition, do have one eye on the knockout stages. They secured a solitary point when their match against Australia was rained off, then cruised past Afghanistan with a 105-run win. If they beat Scotland and England, they qualify for the final stages.

Berrington knows what it’s like to make a little moment of history for his national side. A bigger moment will need to be made for Scotland to take anything away from the game’s biggest stage.