Two defeats under Burger’s tenure but Munsey eyes a bright future

Scotland cricketer George Munsey believes the future is bright under head coach Shane Burger following May’s internationals, stating “this group of players are very exciting and we have plenty to build on”.

10/05/19 ODI SERIES SCOTLAND v AFGHANISTAN THE GRANGE - EDINBURGH Scoland's George Munsey steps up to bat

Munsey, the Mazars Grange and Eastern Knights batsman who has already played for Leicestershire this season, hit 61 runs off just 42 balls during Tuesday’s rain-affected One Day International loss to Sri Lanka at The Grange in Edinburgh.

After a rain delay while they were on 132 for three from 27 overs chasing 323 to win, Scotland required a further 103 runs from seven overs to make an unlikely revised target of 235.

It was always going to be a big ask, but left hander Munsey gave them hope with some big sixes before the fall of his wicket started a collapse to 199 all out.

The 35 run loss via DLS was the second defeat since South African Burger took up the post as head coach a couple of months ago.

Thirteen days ago Scotland lost out to Afghanistan by two runs via DLS, but with two matches against them and Sri Lanka also being completely lost to poor weather this month, it would be very harsh to judge Burger on these results just yet.

The weather on those days frustrated 36-year-old Burger, but he will now have time to refocus his squad ahead of Cricket World Cup League Two fixtures against Oman and Papua New Guinea in Aberdeen in August.

“We have all enjoyed getting to know Shane and working with him over the last few weeks,” Munsey, 26, stated.

“It has been a change for us all, but we have quite a lot of experience in the group despite quite a young age profile and we are all determined to keep working together to get better. As I have said before, this group of players is very exciting and we have plenty to build on.

“It is up to us all now to go away and keep playing well for clubs, regions or wherever and really build up to the matches in August with a spring in our step.

“On Tuesday it was slightly out of character for us to drop so many catches in one game.

“For the first 20 overs or so we weren’t that great as a unit in the field, but then we turned it around and we stopped Sri Lanka getting a 350 score and brought them back closer to the 300 mark. That was down to us bowling and fielding better as a unit.

“With the bat when we came off after 27 overs we may have been behind [on DLS], but Matthew Cross and myself were going pretty well and I definitely think the run chase to 323 was still on.

“When we then found out we needed quite a few [103] off seven overs we knew that we would have to take some risks, but with my nature I was still positive actually. I managed to get a few big hits away, but the Sri Lankans bowled well and credit to them.”